Breasts, Female

Tumescent Liposuction of the Female Breast

Tumescent liposuction of the female breast totally by local anesthesia can produce both a significant breast reduction and a moderate but gratifying breast lift. The use of microcannulas permits breast reduction with minimal postoperative pain, rapid postoperative recovery, quick return to normal activities, and virtually no scaring. Not only can liposuction reduce the female breast by more than 50 percent in size, the breasts are also lifted to a significant degree.This breast lift is the result of the reduced weight of the breast, which allows the breasts' natural elastic properties to contract and produce elevation. The breasts do not change shape after tumescent liposuction, they simply become smaller and somewhat elevated. After liposuction, the breast's shape is simply a smaller version of the shape before liposuction.

No Surgical Scars

Surgical scars are not visible in most patients after breast reduction by tumescent liposuction using microcannulas. Evidence of micro-incisions usually disappears within a few months. The use of microcannulas permits the use of extremely small round incisions that are 1 millimeter (approximately 1/25 of an inch) in diameter. These tiny incisions produce scars that are much smaller than 1 millimeter and therefore almost invisible. In contrast, traditional breast reduction is associated with much larger scars and more visible scars. Patients whose natural skin color is darkly pigmented can expect to have some tiny spots of increased pigmentation at the incision sites where the microcannula enters the skin. This post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation usually fades away after 1 to 2 years.

Tumescent Liposuction Lifts the Breasts

Both breast reduction and breast lift can be accomplished by tumescent liposuction. Liposuction reduces breast size in direct proportion to the volume of fat removed. Liposuction reduces the weight of the breast and allows the natural elastic tissue in the breast to retract and produce a visible breast lift.

Older Techniques for Breast Reduction

Older techniques for breast reduction, known as surgical-excision breast reduction, involved cutting the breast with a scalpel to excise or remove large amounts of breast tissue. Problems associated with surgical-excision breast reduction include the risk of keloids or excessively large scars, uneven sized breasts, abnormal appearance of the skin near the nipple, impaired nipple sensation, and possible nipple damage. Other risks include bleeding, blood clots or hematoma in the breast, seromas (fluid collection in the breast), fat necrosis with cyst formation in the breast, and scarring of the deep breast tissue that can produce mammogram abnormalities. Besides requiring general anesthesia, breast reduction by excision is also associated with significant pain and prolonged recovery.

Advantages of Breast Reduction

Advantages of breast reduction by tumescent liposuction using microcannulas include 1) Rapid recovery. The typical patient can return to work and normal social activity within two to three days after surgery, 2) Virtually no scars, 3) Reduction of 20 to 50 percent of the breast volume, 4) Minimal risks of postoperative complications.

Problems with Excessively Large Breasts

Excessively large female breasts cause pain and suffering, physical impairment and psychological problems. Athletic activity is significantly limited. Chronic changes in posture in an effort to compensate for the weight of excessively large breasts can lead to chronic pain in the back, neck, and shoulders. Chronic pressure from bra straps can cause permanent indentations of the shoulders. Large breasts can predispose women to candida yeast infections of the skin in areas where the skin rubs together, such as between the breasts and beneath the breasts. A woman who has very large breasts may regard them as cosmetically undesirable. Finding a bra that fits and is comfortable may be impossible. Clothing does not fit well.

Who is a Good Candidate?

Some women are likely to have better results than other women after breast reduction by liposuction. Tumescent breast reduction totally by local anesthesia is only appropriate for a certain subset of women.

However, for the appropriate patient, the results of tumescent liposuction can be extremely gratifying. The best candidates for breast reduction by tumescent liposuction have breasts that contain a large proportion of fat. For example, women who have passed through menopause typically have breasts that contain a larger proportion of fat than do teenagers. A good candidate must also have realistic expectations.

Breasts Containing a Large Proportion of Fat

After menopause, much of the glandular tissue in the breasts is replaced by fatty tissue, thus, old women with large breasts are usually very good candidates for tumescent liposuction of the breasts. Young women who continue to have menstrual periods and are somewhat overweight might also have breasts that contain a significant amount of fat, and therefore would also be good candidates for liposuction of the breasts. The proportion of fat in the female breast can be determined by a mammogram.

Realistic Expectations

Breast reduction by liposuction will produce a smaller version of the breasts that a woman had before liposuction. One can expect the breasts to be significantly smaller, to be elevated and to show virtually no scars. However, the breasts' overall shape will be very similar to their shape before liposuction. Liposuction will usually not produce young "perky" breasts. The elevation of breast position is the result of decreased breasts' weight and the elastic properties of the suspensory ligaments in the breast.

Who is Not a Good Candidate?

Not every woman is a good candidate for liposuction breast reduction. Some women have breasts that will require traditional breast reduction surgery with large excisions and large scars. Women who are not ideal candidates for breast reduction by liposuction include those whose breasts contain more glandular tissue than fat tissue.

Unrealistic Expectations

Women who expect perfect breasts after liposuction breast reduction have unrealistic expectations. For example, most women who have had a baby, should not expect breast reduction surgery to recreate the "perfect" breasts of a virgin. There is usually no surgical procedure that can achieve this unrealistic goal.

Excessively Pendulous Breasts

Excessively pendulous breasts usually contain only a small proportion of fat. If breasts that appear to sag or droop significantly and contain only a small amount of tissue, then liposuction will not provide satisfactory cosmetic improvement. Such "empty" breasts contain little fat and therefore will not be improved by liposuction. Cosmetic improvement of "empty" breasts usually requires excision of skin, as well as breast implants.

Thin Young Women

Thin young women who have breasts containing mostly glandular breast tissue with little fat are often not good candidates for breast reduction by liposuction. For example, a relatively thin woman with large breasts often has breasts that contain a high proportion of glandular breast tissue and almost no fat. In such cases there is little fat in the breasts and liposuction will not produce a significant reduction.

Excessively Large Breasts

Liposuction can usually be expected to provide no more than a 55 percent reduction in breast size. Women who need more than a 55 percent reduction in breast size might be happier with the results of traditional surgical breast reduction surgery despite the unsightly scars associated with the excision of skin and breast tissue.

Excessively Dense Breast Tissue

Some women have breasts that contain a large proportion of glandular tissue, and relatively little fatty tissue. Liposuction can remove fat, but glandular breast tissue is largely resistant to liposuction. Fibrocystic disease of the breast can make liposuction more difficult. However, when fibrocystic disease is only mild to moderate in degree then some women can achieve sufficient results.

Existence of a Breast Lump

Any significant breast mass must be evaluated with a mammogram and possibly a breast biopsy prior to breast reduction. Cosmetic breast surgery is not appropriate until the surgeon has established that there is a minimal likelihood of breast cancer. Breast surgery in any patient with a significant family history of breast cancer requires very careful consideration and detailed informed consent.

Milk Production After Breast Reduction

If a woman becomes pregnant after tumescent liposuction of the breasts, there is a reasonable chance that she will be able to breast feed. With the use of microcannulas, tumescent liposuction produces very little damage to the glands and ducts that produce milk. In contrast with breast reduction techniques that use scalpels to cutout large portions of breast tissue, the glands and ducts are usually damaged and blocked by excessive scar tissue that prevents milk production and breast feeding.

Preoperative Mammograms

Preoperative mammograms should be considered in order to rule out existing malignancies, and to establish a up-to-date baseline mammogram with which future mammograms might be compared. Similarly, after breast reduction, mammograms should be done within 3 to 6 months in order to establish new base-line mammograms. With traditional breast reduction by surgical excision, it is not uncommon to encounter postoperative inflammatory nodules, and lipid filled pseudocysts. These conditions may make it difficult to interpret future mammograms without good baseline mammograms for comparison. Inflammatory nodules and pseudocysts are rare after tumescent liposuction of the female breast.

Angelina’s Right Leg is Meme, Twitter Feed

Sunday night's Academy Awards will be remembered as the night Angelina Jolie's leg became a star of its own. Less than 24 hours after the ceremony, Angie's right gam is all the rage.

For those who missed the Billy Crystal-hosted event, Jolie caused a ruckus by wearing a black dress with a thigh-high slit. Her right leg was on display whenever she walked or posed (which was often -- just check out this collection of photos from BuzzFeed).

The leg's big moment came when Jolie presented for best adapted screenplay. Angelina stuck out her leg in a flaunty pose. The move was then mocked by writer Jim Rash who, along with Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon, won an Oscar for his work on "The Descendants."

 But Rash's joke was just the beginning. Angelina's right leg is now the meme that won't die. Its been digitally edited onto the Statue of Liberty, and into scenes that include The Last Supper, Darth Vader, Betty White, Abbey Road, Jeremy Lin, and, by the time you read this, about a million other things. Check out this collection of leg-bombing photos from Pinterest. We're still waiting for the one with the lamp from "A Christmas Story."

Fake photos are cool and everything, but as anybody who spends way too much time on the Internet can tell you, you're nobody until you have your own Twitter feed. Angelina's right leg has one and it already has more than 20,000 followers. A sample tweet: "Left leg and I talked -- everything's cool. Next Oscars, she gets the slit."

The Good Body

In the midst of a war in Iraq, in a time of escalatingglobal terrorism, when civil liberties are disappearingas fast as the ozone layer, when one out of threewomen in the world will be beaten or raped in herlifetime, why write a play about my stomach?

Maybe because my stomach is one thing I feel Ihave control over, or maybe because I have hopedthat my stomach is something I could get controlover. Maybe because I see how my stomach has cometo occupy my attention, I see how other women’sstomachs or butts or thighs or hair or skin have cometo occupy their attention, so that we have very littleleft for the war in Iraq—or much else, for that matter.When a group of ethnically diverse, economicallydisadvantaged women in the United States wasrecently asked about the one thing they wouldchange in their lives if they could, the majority ofthese women said they would lose weight. Maybe Iidentify with these women because I have boughtinto the idea that if my stomach were flat, then Iwould be good, and I would be safe. I would be protected.I would be accepted, admired, important,loved. Maybe because for most of my life I have feltwrong, dirty, guilty, and bad, and my stomach isthe carrier, the pouch for all that self-hatred. Maybebecause my stomach has become the repository formy sorrow, my childhood scars, my unfulfilled ambition,my unexpressed rage. Like a toxic dump, it iswhere the explosive trajectories collide—the Judeo-Christian imperative to be good; the patriarchal mandate that women be quiet, be less; the consumer-stateimperative to be better, which is based on the assumptionthat you are born wrong and bad, and thatbeing better always involves spending money, lots ofmoney. Maybe because, as the world rapidly dividesinto fundamentalist camps, reductive sound bites, andpolarizing platitudes, an exploration of my stomachand the life therein has the potential to shatter thesedangerous constraints.
This journey has been different from the one Iundertook in The Vagina Monologues. I was worriedabout vaginas when I began that play. I was worriedabout the shame associated with vaginas and I wasworried about what was happening to vaginas, in thedark. As I talked about vaginas and to vaginas, I becameeven more worried about the onslaught of violencedone to women and their vaginas around theworld.
There was, of course, the great celebration of vaginasas well. Pleasure, discovery, sex, moans, power.I suppose I had this fantasy that after finally cominghome into my vagina, I could relax, get on with life.This was not the case. The deadly self-hatred simplymoved into another part of my body.
The Good Body began with me and my particularobsession with my “imperfect” stomach. Ihave charted this self-hatred, recorded it, tried tofollow it back to its source. Here, unlike the womenin The Vagina Monologues, I am my own victim,my own perpetrator. Of course, the tools of my selfvictimizationhave been made readily available. Thepattern of the perfect body has been programmedinto me since birth. But whatever the cultural influences and pressures, my preoccupation with myflab, my constant dieting, exercising, worrying, is selfimposed.I pick up the magazines. I buy into theideal. I believe that blond, flat girls have the secret.What is far more frightening than narcissism is thezeal for self-mutilation that is spreading, infectingthe world.
I have been to more than forty countries in thelast six years. I have seen the rampant and insidiouspoisoning: skin-lightening creams sell as fast as toothpaste in Africa and Asia; the mothers of eight-year-oldsin America remove their daughters’ ribs so theywill not have to worry about dieting; five-year-olds inManhattan do strict asanas so they won’t embarrasstheir parents in public by being chubby; girls vomitand starve themselves in China and Fiji and everywhere;Korean women remove Asia from their eyelids. . . the list goes on and on.
I have been in a dialogue with my stomach forthe past three years. I have entered my belly—thedark wet underworld—to get at the secrets there. Ihave talked with women in surgical centers in BeverlyHills; on the sensual beaches of Rio de Janeiro;in the gyms of Mumbai, New York, Moscow; in thehectic and crowded beauty salons of Istanbul, SouthAfrica, and Rome. Except for a rare few, the womenI met loathed at least one part of their body. Therewas almost always one part that they longed tochange, that they had a medicine cabinet full ofproducts devoted to transforming or hiding or reducingor straightening or lightening. Just about everywoman believed that if she could just get that partright, everything else would work out. Of course, it isan endless heartbreaking campaign.

Some of the monologues in The Good Body arebased on well-known women like Helen GurleyBrown and Isabella Rossellini. Those monologues,which grew out of a series of conversations with eachof these fascinating women, are not recorded interviews,but interpretations of the lives they offeredme. Some of the other characters are based on reallives, real stories. Many are invented.
This play is my prayer, my attempt to analyze themechanisms of our imprisonment, to break free sothat we may spend more time running the worldthan running away from it; so that we may be consumedby the sorrow of the world rather than consumingto avoid that sorrow and suffering. This playis an expression of my hope, my desire, that we willall refuse to be Barbie, that we will say no to the lossof the particular, whether it be to a voluptuous womanin a silk sari, or a woman with defining lines of characterin her face, or a distinguishing nose, or olivetonedskin, or wild curly hair.
I am stepping off the capitalist treadmill. I amgoing to take a deep breath and find a way to survivenot being flat or perfect. I am inviting you to join me,to stop trying to be anything, anyone other than whoyou are. I was moved by women in Africa who livedclose to the earth and didn’t understand what it meantto not love their body. I was lifted by older women inIndia who celebrated their roundness. I was inspiredby Marion Woodman, a great Jungian analyst, whogave me confidence to trust what I know. She hassaid that “instead of transcending ourselves, we mustmove into ourselves.”Tell the image makers and magazine sellers andthe plastic surgeons that you are not afraid. Thatwhat you fear the most is the death of imaginationand originality and metaphor and passion. Then bebold and LOVE YOUR BODY. STOP FIXING IT. Itwas never broken.

About Pride & Diversity

The Pride & Diversity Project was initially funded by the
Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.
The City of Monash continues to fund this project that
provides a service to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender
and intersex young people in the City of Monash. Pride &
Diversity focuses on enhancing the quality of life for samesex-
attracted and transgender young people.
The Project provides a co-ordinated and responsive
service for same sex attracted and transgender young
people, including:
• A social support group for 14 – 21 year olds who identify
as gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, intersex or unsure.
• Individual support for young people and families.
• Coordination and collaboration amongst support
services to improve access opportunities for same-sexattracted
young people

How to reduce thighs? 4 Simple, Best exercises to reduce your thighs in Weeks, right at the comfort of your Home

Reducing thighs is one of the main concerns for people who are fat, especially those who have excessive fat deposits around their mid-section and lower body. Since thighs form the major part of the lower body, it is very important to keep your thighs free of excessive fat. Excessive fat in your thighs is an indication of obesity and and is also an unhealthy factor. Most people try various exercises to reduce their thighs but end up in vain. This is because they often follow wrong or ineffective workout practices, which not only prove useless but also lead to cramps and muscle injuries. Lower body maintenance is very important for everyone since it bears the weight of the body and also plays a major role in balanced metabolism in our body. While exercising to reduce thigh fat, one should also ensure to workout the buttock muscles since fat deposits in your butt may prevent you from effectively burning the fat in your thighs. Hence, it's essential to forumlate an exercise regimen that will workout both your buttock and thigh muscles

The exercises described below in this hub are simple, but powerful workouts which can reduce your thighs in a short span of time. You need not go to the gymnasium or require special equipments to these exercises, these can be done right at the comfort of your home just watching your television or listening to your favorite music

Following are 4 best exercises to reduce your thighs in Weeks, right at the comfort of your home:

1. Standing Free Squat:

This is a simple, but a very effective exercise to get rid of Thigh fat. This can be done at your home without any weights or special equipments.

Start in a standing position, with your feet about shoulder width apart. Keep your back straight, and start slowly bending at the knees, pressing back with your butt. As you do this, you will naturally start to lean forward, but don't lean excessively. Go down as far as you can but ensure that you don't lift your heels. Then slowly raise to the initial standing position. Repeat the same

Workout schedule: 3-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions each

2. Lunges: A very effective exercise to get your thighs into great shape. Lunges target the gluteus medius and, to a lesser extent, the gluteus maximus and the hamstrings. There are so many versions of lunges, you're certain to find one you can tolerate, if not fall in love with. This drop-knee version is the most basic lunge and, surprisingly, one of the harder versions. Here's how to do it:

1. Stand in a split stance, with feet about 3 feet apart. You want both knees to be at about 90-degree angles at the bottom of the movement, so adjust accordingly.

2. Hold weights in each hand or place a barbell behind the neck for added intensity(optional)

3. Bend the knees and lower the back knee toward the floor, keeping the front heel down and the knee directly over the center of the foot.

4. Keep the torso straight and abs in as you push through the front heel and back to starting position.

5. Don't lock the knees at the top of the movement

Workout schedule: 3-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions each

3. Lying Butt Bridge: This is perhaps the most powerful and effective exercise to get rid of Thighs and buttocks fat. It is difficult to perform but results are amazing

Lie flat on your back on a mat with your knees bent pointing up to the ceiling and your arms at your sides. Simply raise your pelvis up toward the ceiling to a point where your body will be at a about a 45 degree angle relative to the floor. At the top of the movement, be sure to really flex your butt for a one-count. Return to the start position and repeat

Workout schedule: 3-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions each

4. Back Kick: A simple but very powerful exercise to shape your thighs and buttocks. It also increases your lower body strengh and boosts stamina to your legs

1. Looking straight ahead, stand and balance on one leg, and kick the other leg out slightly behind you.

2. Maintain a very slight bend in the knee throughout this exercise.

3. Now start to bend forward while simultaneously pushing the butt and hips back and keeping a flat (not rounded) back.

4. While bending over and pushing the hips back, kick your other leg out behind you and reach down with your hands towards the toe of your foot that's planted on the ground and try to touch it. You should feel a stretch in the hamstrings as you get to the deepest part where your back is parallel to the floor.

5. Then, focus on squeezing the butt muscle hard while you reverse the movement and bring yourself back to upright (all the while maintaining that flat back)

Workout schedule: 3-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions for each leg