Medically reviewed by Susan Kerrigan, MD, Alexandra Kreps, MD, and Marianne Madsen
For many women, breast sagging or breast ptosis is an inevitable part of growing older, the effects of gravity, or having children. Some choose to live with it. However, for other women, it can affect their self-confidence and esteem, and they are looking for ways to lift their breasts back up.
The most common method for reversing sagging breasts is a mastopexy, or as it is also known, a breast lift. Typically, breast lifts are performed by surgically removing excess skin and tightening the surrounding tissues to give the breasts a more shapely and contoured look. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, breast lifts have increased by 70% since 2000 and now outpaces breast implant surgery by 2 to 1.
However, while breast lifts remain popular, many women are looking for an alternative, non-surgical option for dealing with the issue. The benefit of this option is that you don’t have the risk involved with general anesthesia, and there are no surgical incisions involved, lowering the risk of bleeding, scarring, and infection.
Thread Lift
This method involves a cosmetic surgeon using a hypodermic needle to insert special threads beneath the surface of your skin, which are gently pulled upwards towards your collarbone. Typically the threads will last about two years, which is how long the lift results will be visible.
Despite sounding like an invasive method, a thread lift is considered non-invasive. It has the significant benefit of no visible scarring, unlike surgery.
Caci Bust Treatment
With the caci bust treatment, a surgeon will use electric pulses from a handheld device to target the muscles in your chest. The intended result is to tone up the chest muscles, giving your breasts a natural lift effect.
The treatment usually involves around three sessions per week, lasting several weeks before the treatment’s full results might be seen.
Laser Treatments and Thermage
Laser treatments have also been put forward as an alternative to surgery. The high power energy beams involved can remove dead skin cells while increasing collagen production. The increased collagen might give a small lifting effect to your breasts. That said, this tends to work better for facelifts than it does for breast lifts. Any improvements will not be long-lasting and carry a risk of bleeding and scarring, so it is not a recommended alternative to surgery.
Like laser treatments, thermage involves using a device called ThermaCool to deliver radio waves to the deeper skin layers. The radio waves tighten the protein fibers in your skin, so you’ll see the results immediately. However, like laser treatments, the results are temporary and not long-lasting. Even then, it only works best for minor sagging.
Botox and Dermal Fillers
Botox has grown in popularity to help smooth out the skin around your face to give you tighter skin and a minor appearance of wrinkles. Some have suggested that botox injection might be a treatment to tighten loose skin around the breasts. However, botox is currently not FDA approved as a breast lift treatment.
Similarly, dermal fillers used in facelifts have been suggested as a possible non-invasive method of lifting sagging breasts. Fillers can help stimulate the body to produce new collagen in the injection area, so it could be a good option. However, they are not officially recommended as a treatment method due to the lack of long-term studies into their effectiveness in the breast area.
Other Methods
Some have suggested exercises targeted at tightening chest muscles, such as push ups and chest presses, which can lift sagging breasts. There is also the theory that losing weight or ensuring that you wear a well-fitted, supportive bra can improve the appearance of saggy breasts. However, in all of these cases, no evidence has been found for either of these methods being able to prevent or reverse sagging breast tissue.
Any non-surgical alternative to breast lift surgery is unlikely to give you the same results, particularly when the sagging is significant. For minor lifts and temporary results that avoid any risk of infection or scarring, non-surgical treatment can be a more economical and non-invasive way to treat saggy breasts.
