For many women who want to enhance their breasts, the thought of undergoing typical breast augmentation with implants seems, among other things, too overwhelming; they don’t want to deal with everything that comes with this kind of surgery, and resign themselves to a lifetime of padded bras or store-bought inserts. What many women don’t know is that there is a great option for implant-free breast enhancement: Fat transfer to the breast. A fat transfer to the breasts, sometimes called a natural breast augmentation, a fat transfer breast augmentation, or fat grafting for breasts, is a two-part process that takes excess, unwanted fat from one part of the body through liposuction and injects it into the breast to enhance their size and shape. The results can be more natural in look and feel than implants and it leaves no scarring on the breast. Plus, there’s also the sculpting benefits that come with liposuction. Not to mention a significantly shorter recovery than that of breast implant surgery.

What is the natural breast augmentation surgery recovery time?

As with any surgical procedure, there is of course recovery time. However, one of the most surprising things about fat grafting for breasts, as mentioned above, is the recovery from fat transfer to breasts is markedly less than with traditional breast augmentation with implants. Each patient and procedure is different, so each recovery will be different. Generally speaking, your liposuction recovery (and therefore your liposuction recovery time) is actually going to be more significant than the fat transfer recovery. You should give yourself about two weeks to recover: three days of solid downtime and relative downtime for the remainder of the two weeks. Some patients feel comfortable returning to work after five days, while others take longer, depending on the amount of liposuction. You may have some minor discomfort, swelling and bruising immediately after your natural breast augmentation, and should rest as much as possible to give your body time to heal, with the exception of some light walking to get the blood moving and prevent blood clots.  In the weeks following, you may have left over swelling and bruising in both the breasts and the area of your liposuction. You may be able to resume light physical activity around the two week mark after your natural breast fat transfer, and you will most likely be able to return to your normal activity level and any swelling, bruising and/or discomfort should be gone or minimal four to six weeks after.

Additionally, to ensure you have the best possible outcome, Dr. Barrett has curated a Breast Augmentation Recovery Kit to set his fat transfer breast augmentation patients up for surgical success with the least amount of down time and discomfort possible. He’s also created an Ultimate Recovery Surgery Kit as well as an Essentials Recovery Kit to give patients the most access to everything they may need to recover.

Does fat transfer to breasts last?

In short, yes—and that’s another surprising thing about fat grafting to breasts, but it’s not entirely that simple. In a natural breast augmentation, your plastic surgeon utilizes a tiny, little pinhole, either in the border of the areola on the bottom, or in the breast crease to transfer fat cells. Not all of these fat cells survive, as is the case with all fat transfers, but the ones that do are permanent. This means that your final results, once your swelling has gone down, are your final results. To get an idea of what those results may look like, Dr. Barrett has assembled fat transfer breast augmentation before and after images to view. Of course, significant weight fluctuation can change the size of your fat cells, so significant weight gain or loss may impact your breast size. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and taking care to avoid significant weight fluctuation that’s within your control will allow you to reap the results of your natural breast augmentation indefinitely.

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