Is There a Minimally Invasive Breast Augmentation? The Honest Truth

What options do you have for a minimally invasive breast augmentation? The simple answer: zero good ones.

Everything we can do to increase breast size is going to be somewhat invasive. Some options are marketed as "minimally invasive," but let's walk through each one and why I have concerns.

PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injected into the breast is not going to do anything long-term. I think it's a waste of money and would not recommend it.

You'll see people injecting filler or biostimulators for breast augmentation. Plastic surgeons in the UK are actually pushing to ban this practice. Here's why:

• The breast has a natural microbiome — injections can lead to infection
• They can cause issues with lymphatic drainage
• They can interfere with mammogram reads for breast cancer screening

Biostimulators may be less likely to get infected, but we haven't studied how they affect breast cancer screening. And breast cancer is common — this should always be top of mind.

Has been around longer, but it's thinner, doesn't have as much substance, and it's expensive.

Looks and behaves more like actual fat, but we have far less long-term data. We can't really tell you:

• How much of it survives long-term
• How it affects your mammograms
• What imaging looks like a year later

AlloClay has recently started suggesting you can just place the product under the skin. I don't think you can adequately augment a breast by putting some product under the skin. And six-month follow-up is not enough — especially with high-volume injectables. We need biopsy studies. We need to know what this does in the human body long-term.

A cup-size increase with AlloClay — including product and surgeon's fees — runs close to $50,000. That's a lot of money for a product where we don't even know if it'll still be there in a year. You can get fat grafting for significantly less.

I know a lot of my colleagues are using these products. I just feel uncomfortable doing it for anything other than feathering edges around implants, because of everything I've mentioned. We don't have:

• Long-term results
• Imaging studies
• Biopsy studies

People will say they've got great results — but they don't have long-term results. And I don't know if it's worth that money.

I don't think there are good options for minimally invasive breast augmentation right now. If you want a reliable, well-studied increase in breast size, a traditional breast augmentation with implants remains the gold standard.