A recent study by Fortunato et al21 surveyed patients who underwent a mastectomy with or without breast reconstruction over a 10-year period. The results of the 328 patients revealed that emotional and social functioning scores improved significantly in the cohort that underwent breast reconstruction after a mastectomy compared to the cohort that did not undergo a reconstruction. 21 Despite this finding, 21% of the patients were dissatisfied with their reconstruction or regretted their decision to perform it, 21 regret for the decision based on the type of breast reconstruction was not evaluated. Patients who underwent elective common plastic surgery procedures reported regret rates of up to 47.1 percent for breast reconstruction, up to 9.1 percent for breast augmentation, and up to 33.3 percent for body contouring.
The purpose of this review is to analyze existing research on breast reconstruction with the objective of improving the understanding of regret for making decisions in the field of plastic surgery and identifying effective tools to reduce its incidence after aesthetic procedures. A new report, published in The American Journal of Surgery, reviewed 55 studies on regret rates for common plastic surgery operations and major life events. According to the survey, 83% of people who underwent plastic surgery would not consider undergoing any type of cosmetic procedure again. Most of the research on regret for making decisions in plastic surgery revolves around breast reconstruction, and when reading this review, we must take into account the lack of sufficient studies on the subject.
People are much more likely to regret elective plastic surgery, tattoos, and even having children than to regret gender-reaffirming surgery.
