The short answer
A breast lift and breast implants address two different problems. Online, the two words get used almost interchangeably, which is why so many patients arrive at a first consultation unsure which one they have been reading about.
A breast lift, or mastopexy, changes where breast tissue sits. It removes excess skin, repositions the nipple and areola, and reshapes the tissue already present. It does not add volume.
Implants change how much volume there is. An implant sits behind the breast tissue or behind the chest muscle and makes the breast larger. On its own, it does not move a breast that has dropped.
Which means the useful question to bring to a consultation is a narrower one: is the thing that bothers me where my breasts sit, or how much there is? Those are two separate assessments, made on your own measurements in person, not from a photo comparison found online.
A scope point, because it decides which half of this article applies to you. Dr Konrat performs breast lift surgery without implants. Her practice does not perform breast augmentation, implant exchange, or a lift combined with new implants. Patients who want implants placed would need to be assessed by a different practitioner. The distinction is worth understanding either way, because working out which question is yours is what tells you who to be assessed by.
Key takeaways
- A breast lift repositions and reshapes existing tissue. Volume is broadly unchanged.
- Implants add volume. They do not reposition a breast that has dropped.
- The decision follows from measurements taken in person, mainly where the nipple sits relative to the crease under the breast, how much breast tissue is present, and the quality of the skin.
- A combined operation asks one set of tissues to do two opposing things, which is why it is sometimes staged into two operations instead.
- Dr Konrat performs the lift only. No augmentation, no implant exchange, no lift with new implants.
- Medicare and private health insurance rebates do not apply to treatment at this practice.
What a breast lift actually does
Ptosis is the medical word for breast tissue that has dropped. It develops after pregnancy and breastfeeding, after weight loss, and through ordinary loss of skin elasticity over time. None of those causes are unusual, and none are a sign that anything has gone wrong.
A mastopexy addresses ptosis directly. Excess skin is removed, the nipple and areola are moved to sit higher on the breast mound, the areola is often reduced in diameter at the same time, and the remaining tissue is reshaped so that it sits more compactly.
What it does not do is make the breast larger. Some patients notice the opposite impression afterwards: the same volume, gathered higher and closer together, can read as slightly smaller than it did before. That surprises people who expected a lift to also give them more fullness in the upper part of the breast.
The overview of breast lift surgery and the Sydney breast lift page set out the operation in more detail, and the breast lift gallery shows the incision patterns used. Those images illustrate technique. They are not a promise about what any individual will look like afterwards.
What implants actually do
An implant is a device, made of silicone or saline, placed behind the breast tissue or behind the chest muscle. It adds volume, and it fills the upper part of the breast in a way that reshaping alone cannot.
What it does not do is lift. Adding volume behind a breast whose nipple has already dropped below the crease underneath usually produces a larger breast that still sits low. The looseness in the skin is still there, now with more weight in it.
Implants are also devices rather than permanent fixtures, which is the part most easily skipped over while reading. Healthdirect notes that breast implants may need to be replaced after 10 to 15 years. Choosing them at 35 carries forward into further operations later, and that is a different kind of commitment from a lift.
What determines whether a lift alone is the relevant option
This is the part no article can settle, because it turns on measurements taken with you standing:
- Where the nipple sits relative to the inframammary fold, the crease underneath the breast. This single measurement does most of the work in deciding whether the concern is position or volume.
- How much breast tissue is present. A patient with reasonable volume that has simply moved is a different situation from a patient whose breast has lost substance as well as position.
- Skin quality. Skin that has been stretched by pregnancy or weight loss behaves differently under tension from skin that has not.
- Breast width and chest measurements, which set the boundaries of what any reshaping can achieve.
- What you are actually asking to change. Two patients with near-identical measurements can want different things, and that is a legitimate input, not a distraction.
A useful way to prepare for the appointment is to answer the position-or-volume question for yourself first. If you look in the mirror and the thought is these used to sit higher, that points toward position. If the thought is there is less here than there was, that points toward volume. Many patients find, once they separate the two, that only one of them was actually driving the appointment.
Recovery: how the two differ
The early recovery period is broadly similar in length. Both are performed under general anaesthesia at an accredited facility, both involve the same lift incisions, and most patients are advised to plan for a few weeks away from ordinary activity with a longer gap before any lifting or upper-body exercise.
The differences are in the detail rather than the calendar:
- Time on the table. A lift alone is the shorter operation. Adding an implant lengthens it.
- What gets disturbed. A lift works on skin and breast tissue. If an implant is placed beneath the chest muscle, the muscle is disturbed as well.
- Early soreness. After a lift, soreness sits in the breast and along the incisions. A sub-muscular implant adds chest-wall soreness as well.
- The longer term. A lift leaves no device behind. An implant is monitored over the years and may need further surgery.
That last point is the one patients tend to weigh least at the time and most later. A lift is an operation with an end point. Breasts continue to change afterwards through ageing, weight change and further pregnancies, and a lift may need revisiting for that reason, but there is no device involved. Implants introduce ongoing monitoring and the likelihood of further surgery at some stage.
For patients who already have implants and are weighing removal, sometimes with a lift performed at the same time, breast implant removal covers what this practice does and does not do in that situation.
Does combining them add risk?
It adds complexity, and complexity is where risk accumulates.
A lift reduces the skin envelope. An implant expands it. Performed together, one set of tissues is being asked to do two opposing things in a single operation, and the surgical plan has to satisfy both at once. That constraint is the reason the combined procedure is sometimes staged into two separate operations, with the lift and the implant addressed in turn rather than together.
Beyond that specific tension, both operations carry the general risks of any surgery: bleeding, infection, problems with wound healing, scarring that settles differently from expectation, asymmetry between the two sides, changes in nipple sensation, effects on breastfeeding, and the possibility that a further operation is needed. The general risks and complications of cosmetic surgery page sets these out in full, and they are discussed individually at consultation rather than as a list handed over.
Surgery of any kind carries risk, and no version of this decision removes that.
How the decision is actually made
In Australia, the pathway for cosmetic surgery is set by regulation rather than by individual practices. A GP referral is required before the consultation. At least two pre-operative consultations are required, one of them in person with Dr Konrat. After informed consent, a minimum seven-day cooling-off period applies before surgery can be booked or a deposit paid. AHPRA maintains a public hub covering the cosmetic surgery framework for patients who want to read the rules directly.
Those requirements exist so that this decision is not made inside one appointment while sitting in a consulting room. The gap is genuinely useful here, because the position-or-volume question often resolves itself once someone has had a week to sit with it. More detail on both stages is in the articles on the two-consultation rule and the seven-day cooling-off period, and what to expect at a cosmetic consultation covers the appointment itself.
Costs
Medicare and private health insurance rebates do not apply to treatment at this practice. Fees are paid out of pocket, and a written estimate covering the practitioner fee, anaesthesia fee, facility fee and follow-up appointments is provided after the first consultation. The cosmetic surgery cost page explains what sits inside a quote and why quotes differ between practices.
A lift and a combined lift-with-implant operation are not priced alike, since the second involves a device, a longer operation and additional facility time. That is context rather than a quote for this practice, which does not perform the combined operation.
Where to go from here
If the answer to the position-or-volume question is position, a breast lift is the relevant conversation, and it is one this practice has regularly. If the answer is volume, or both, the assessment belongs with a practitioner who offers implant surgery, and your GP is the right starting point for that referral.
If you are not sure which it is, that is an ordinary place to be, and it is exactly what a first consultation is for. Patients who would like their own measurements taken and the options explained against them can book a consultation.
All surgeries carry risks. Please seek a second opinion from an appropriately qualified health practitioner before proceeding. For more information regarding surgical risks, please visit our website: https://drgeorginakonrat.com.au/general-risks-and-complications-of-cosmetic-surgery/
Dr Georgina Konrat | MED0001407863
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)
Fellow of the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine (FACCSM)
Registered Medical Practitioner | General Registration
Book a consultation: https://drgeorginakonrat.com.au/book-online/