Breast ptosis – sagging breast
The sagging of the breast is called breast ptosis in Latin. A sagging breast is essentially when there is a disproportion between the volume of the breast tissue and the surface area of the skin mantle. Both the sagging of the skin with increasing age and the loss of breast tissue after pregnancy or weight loss lead to breast ptosis.
In a youthful breast, the nipple is located around five to seven centimetres above the underbust crease or at the level of the middle of the upper arm. As a further guide, the distance from the jugulum to the nipple is usually measured. This distance is about 21 to 23 centimeters for a youthful breast.
Another characteristic of a sagging breast is deviations from a balanced height ratio between the upper and lower half of the breast, corresponding to 45 percent to 55 percent (Mallucci P, et al. Population analysis of the perfect breast: a morphometric analysis. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2014 Sep;134(3):436-47.). According to Regnault, the degree of breast ptosis is divided into three grades. The height between the nipple and the inframammary fold in centimeters is somewhat more precise (Kirwan L. 2002. Aesthet Surg J). Breast ptosis can be corrected by a breast lift.
