Women can now enhance breast by using unwanted fat

A SURGICAL technique using a woman’s own fat to enlarge her breasts is expected to become more popular following scares about the safety of implants, experts have predicted.

Surgeons in Scotland have, for the first time, used fat transfer – taking fat from the stomach, bottom or thighs – to increase the size of a patient’s breasts in a cosmetic procedure.

Edinburgh surgeon Mark Butterworth expects more women to try the procedure to avoid using silicone. Last year, thousands of women in the UK and worldwide were caught up in the panic after it emerged that French manufacturer PIP used non-authorised industrial-grade silicone gel in its implants, with abnormally high rupture rates.

Fat transfer is used in the NHS in reconstructive surgery, but until now has not been used in cosmetic treatments in Scotland. Mr Butterworth, who works at the Spire Murrayfield Hospital, said: “Surgeons have now got more experience with it through the reconstructive work and are more … confident about offering it as an alternative to silicon implants.”

Mr Butterworth said he believed that concerns over implants would mean more women will opt for the fat transfer procedure.

Mr Butterworth stressed that silicon implants still had a “very valid role” in breast enlargement and there were no health risks with those currently in use. But he said another issue that might make the new technique more popular was that implants would not last forever and may need to be removed or replaced. This could be avoided through fat transfer. However, one drawback with fat transfer is that it could take more than one procedure to achieve the desired result. Generally, the technique would be more suitable for those only wanting a modest increase in bust size.

Fat transfer involves having liposuction and enlargement done together to harvest fat cells. “The patient would choose an area of their body they don’t like – such as their tummy or thighs – for liposuction and we would do that standard procedure on that area,” Mr Butterworth said. “But instead of discarding the fat, we process and purify it in the operating room and we get a very small needle and reinject the fat into the breast equally on each side.” The procedure leaves some bruising in the treated areas, and only between 50 and 70 per cent of the fat put into the breast survives permanently, with the rest reabsorbed into the body.

The cost of the procedure is similar to a traditional breast enlargement – about £4,700. However, the price might increase depending on the extent of the liposuction required and the number of treatments needed.

Tim Goodacre, chair of professional standards at the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, said requests for fat transfer in breast enlargement were starting to come in as people became more aware of the technique. But he does not think the procedure will replace breast implants: “Just because people got frightened of PIP doesn’t mean that implants themselves are unsafe. There are millions of happy and satisfied women.”