Macromastia in teens can have significant impacts on self-image issues and potentially quality of life. Does breast-reduction surgery improve their self-image? Nuzzi et al. (10.1542/peds.2017-1103) elected to answer this question using a longitudinal cohort of 102 adolescents with macromastia and compared their responses to questionnaires administered on self-esteem and other quality of life issues to 84 unaffected female controls. Teens with macromastia were surveyed preoperatively and after mammaplasty over the next 5 years as were controls.
The good news is that post-operatively those who received the breast reduction surgery had significant improvements in their health-related quality of life indicators involving their physical and psychosocial wellbeing. If you have a teen with macromastia, you may want to keep abreast of the information in this study when you discuss the benefits as well as the risks of breast reduction surgery with them. Checkout this study and learn more.
