Many women desire to have bigger breasts, but those with overly large breasts can tell you living with abnormal breast size is not at all easy. Having huge breasts can cause pain in the neck, back and shoulder, reduce a woman's ability to walk and perform daily activities, and cause social embarrassment. 40-year-old Nisha Arora (name changed) from Delhi had gone through all this pain as her breasts grew exponentially, both reaching nearly up to her navel, due to a rare disease called Gigantomastia.
Doctors at Apollo Spectra Hospital successfully performed a bilateral breast reduction surgery on her and removed approximately 1000 gm from each side of the breast.
Sharing her agony of carrying huge breasts, Nisha said, "I was jolted out of my usual routine after my second delivery as I saw constant changes in my breast shape. They started to enlarge and become huge. My breasts reached my navel. My breast had become a burden for me and I felt as if I was carrying a huge weight. Doing basic tasks like buying the right size of clothes or bra, sleeping on the back, and bending down to pick up things was discomforting. I was struggling, agonized, anxious, and stressed."
"This disease affected me physically and mentally. I slowly started having breast pain, back pain, and issues with posture, poor self-esteem, shoulder and neck pain, tiredness, shortness of breath which destroyed my well-being. I would avoid socializing and remain indoors as even my family members were worried after noticing the abnormal breast growth. My bra size was 40 DD and would find it difficult to find a good fit. Living with abnormal breasts is not at all easy. One is subjected to embarrassment and humiliation."
Gigantomastia is a condition that causes excessive growth of the female breasts. It can occur in prepubertal (juvenile), pregnancy or adult stages.
"Gigantomastia is a benign (non-cancerous) condition, and it can happen during puberty or pregnancy," said Dr Neerja Gupta, Consultant Breast Oncoplastic Surgeon at Apollo Spectra Hospital, who performed the breast reduction surgery on the woman.
"It is a condition where the breast overgrowth exceeds in excess of 1500 cm3 is equal to breast tissue or breast comprises more than 3 per cent of body weight. It can affect one or both breasts. The growth of breast leads to social anxiety, depression, and dissatisfaction with their body image," Dr. Gupta added.
Talking about the case of Nisha, Dr. Gupta said, "This 40-year-old woman presented with huge breasts size, both reaching nearly up to her navel. After her last delivery 5 years back, she started noticing changes in beast size but ignored it due to her unawareness of diseases and hesitation. The rapidly progressive bilateral breast enlargement contributed to her neck and back pain, shoulder pain, difficulty in walking, daily activities, moving arms and has impacted the quality of life of a patient."
According to Dr. Gupta, the most effective way for the treatment of Gigantomastia is evaluation of the etiology.
He elaborated, "Gigantomastia is an irreversible situation and needs to be differentiated from other etiology such as drug induced, gestational (pregnancy related) and hormonal. Rarely idiopathic autoimmune cases have been reported and need to be differentiated from other causes."
"Once stabilized, the treatment is breast reduction surgery. Pre-operative evaluation needs a mammogram and USG, MRI of breasts serum thyroid function tests, serum prolactin, oestradiol, and testosterone levels need to be done as a part of preoperative work up," he added.
After counselling with the family members, the surgeon successfully conducted bilateral breast reduction surgery on Nisha using a superomedial pedicle with a vertical scar, reduction mammaplasty and removed approximately 1000 gms from each side of the breast.
The operation took about 4.5 hours and the patient was discharged the next day morning of surgery after an uneventful recovery.
Dr. Gupta added "Gigantomastia is a condition where the breast tissue becomes hypersensitive to hormones. After careful assessment, once the growth is stable, breast reduction is done. Surgery helps restore body image, sexual life, and psychosocial image, and increases women's confidence."
Nisha is thankful to the doctors at Apollo Hospital for helping her to get rid of the big breasts.
"Now, I feel comfortable as I am using a 32 B size bra. I can walk and breathe freely now. I have resumed my daily activities with ease and started socialising like before," she said.
