Most important, many women find that reconstruction improves their emotional well being by minimizing the impact that surgery has had on their body image and lifestyle. Most women who have had mastectomies can have breast reconstruction. Women who wish to have breast reconstruction need to find a board certified plastic surgeon who has had training in breast surgery and who performs breast reconstruction on a regular basis. Some surgeons offer the option of reconstruction at the time of mastectomy while others prefer to wait until the woman has recovered from surgery and has had time to consider the decision. It is possible to have reconstruction any time after surgery, even years later.
Reconstruction usually involves the entire breast, including the nipple and areola.
As with any surgery, there are risks with breast reconstruction. One potential problem is that the body could reject the implant as a foreign substance. Of course, tissue transfers would not present this problem. Another possible problem is capsular contracture, the body's formation of scar tissue around an implant. This makes the implant unnaturally hard and may cause discomfort and disfigurement.