Is summer a good time to have breast reduction surgery?

1. A common question we hear at this time of year is "Is summer a good time of year to have breast reduction surgery"?

Often women worry out loud that over summer "The skin in the fold under my breasts gets sweaty and I can get rashes, infections and sometimes even bleeding in this area. Surely that can't be a good time to have surgery"

Obviously these issues are real concerns and certainly we would not perform a procedure if you had an active infection at the time of surgery but if we have plans in place we can manage the situation prior to surgery so everything is quiet and ready to go on the day of a procedure.

2.Sometimes women that worry the recovery will be more uncomfortable in the summer months.

The good news is that you can have a breast reduction procedure performed safely at any time of the year.

There is no evidence that the rate of infections or wound healing problems are higher in summer months.

You will have a period where you will be restricted in your activities but usually you can shower the next day after surgery and every day after that& so you can keep cool even in very hot weather.

If you have a cool room at home(if it is air conditioned all the better) in case we get a run of hot days in your recovery period you will be fine.

It is very common for women to choose to have their breast reduction procedure in the run up to Christmas or over the January holiday period simply because a lot of work places have a close down or low activity period at this time of year and therefore you can get holidays to have the procedure performed and recover before the new year of work commitments kick in.

The other reason women often give for having the procedure in the lead up to Christmas or January period is for privacy. If you take holidays at this time of year it is so routine that you just seem to get a whole lot less questions about why you are away from work. People just assume you are away with family or friends and you can just avoid the well-intentioned but tedious and repetitive explanations to other people about what has gone on if you would prefer to avoid all this.

3.What about other times of the year

Of course breast reduction procedures are performed at all times throughout the year and if you had totally free choice around the timing of your procedure you may well decide to have it performed in the autumn or winter when you don't have to consider the implications of summer weather at all.

Often autumn and winter are times of the year when people "hibernate" so if you drop off the social map a bit for a few weeks in autumn or winter it goes under noticed which is often nice for people who are protective of their privacy.