Joanna, 44, is a doting mum of four. “My eldest is 20 and my youngest is 7 now,” she smiles. “I breast fed each of my children, which I loved – I wanted to give them the best start in life. And I did! But I guess I sacrificed my breasts as a result. I was a B cup before I had my kids, which reduced to an A cup afterwards. My breasts weren’t as full or as firm as before. However, I feel honoured that I got the chance to feed my children naturally. I’d do it again and again, even now, regardless of the cost of losing the part of me I truly liked – my breasts.”
An active person who looks after her body, Joanna goes to the gym regularly, but exercising didn’t help. “The changes that had taken place in my breasts couldn’t be undone through exercise,” she says. “I’ve always considered myself to be quite body confident, but when I looked in the mirror, I wanted to hide my top half rather than showing it off. While I would wear a bikini, I didn’t feel happy about it and would avoid showing my chest if I could.”
Joanna took time to consider her surgery options – four years, to be precise! “I thought about it and thought about it, again and again. Although I’d mentioned the possibility of having breast enlargement to some people I knew, several said that I should just be content with how I looked naturally. But I just wasn’t happy in myself, so I started to do more research and think about it more in depth. I knew it was serious surgery, and I’m quite scared of pain – I don’t have a high pain threshold – but I figured that it couldn’t be worse than giving birth, and I’d managed that four times!”
It was a visit to her hairdresser that finally led Joanna to decide to go ahead with a breast augmentation procedure. She recalls, “I mentioned to her that I was considering breast enlargement and she recommended Transform Hospital Group, because she’d had treatment there herself. I looked at the website, and made my decision in one day – I even chose the surgeon I’d like to perform the operation! The time for thinking was over. It was time to just go for it.”
Having filled out the website’s enquiry form, Joanna received a call the following day from Transform to discuss the treatment in more detail. “I was so excited,” she says. “I asked for my surgery to be scheduled as quickly as possible, and I got a date within 4 weeks.”
The next step was for Joanna to travel to her local Transform clinic in Cardiff for a consultation with her surgeon, Mr Khalil. “He is an amazing man! He listed all the advantages and risks of breast augmentation so that I had the details I needed to make my decision. Most important for me was the size my new breasts would be, and he reassured me that he wouldn’t make me look unnatural. He totally put me at ease. I decided on under the muscle implants and I was aiming to have a nice, natural D plus cup afterwards.”
As Joanna prepared for her operation, she was supported by her partner. “He said it was my body and my decision to make – although he loved how I looked naturally, he knew how much it was affecting my confidence.”
My eldest is 20 and my youngest is 7 now.
Book a free consultation with our team and talk through your options at your own pace
