Why some women have an hourglass shape after the tummy tuck
Among the categories of people most interested in undergoing a tummy tuck are men and women who have undergone massive weight loss and are now left with considerable amounts of saggy skin on the tummy. Women who have had one or multiple pregnancies are now unhappy with the appearance of their abdominal wall. It is not uncommon for patients who had multiple pregnancies or big babies to suffer from a condition called diastasis recti. This condition affects the abdominal muscles, meaning there is a gap between the left and right muscles. Because of this, the abdominal wall doesn’t look flat and firm, even if the patient has the ideal weight.
The tummy tuck is performed to correct imperfections of the abdominal wall. Sometimes, the procedure also entails the removal of excess, saggy skin on the flanks, but this is in the case of patients who had bariatric surgery or have lost lots of weight in a short period of time. For other patients, the procedure will only target the abdominal wall.
After the procedure, different patients have different results. What does this mean? In short, if the recommended procedure was the right one for the patient, the patient will enjoy not only a flat and firm tummy, but also a nice shape of the body.
It is true that patients come to the plastic surgeon complaining about saggy skin on the tummy and sometimes don’t even mention that they would love to see an improvement in the overall shape of the body after the procedure. Some might not even realize what shape their body will be after the procedure. They assume that a procedure performed on the tummy will automatically improve the waist and midline as well. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Some patients can be left with a square shape of the body after the procedure, and it is these patients that will come and ask me why some women have an hourglass shape after the tummy tuck and they don’t.
Different patients get different results, even after undergoing the same procedure. The main reason is that the initial condition of the body and anatomical characteristics are different from patient to patient. Some women undergoing the tummy tuck have no excess of adipose deposits on the flanks, naturally wide hips, and their only concern is loose abdominal muscles. These patients will be the ones achieving good results after undergoing abdominoplasty and have an hourglass shape of the body. Other patients will get an hourglass shape of the body after the tummy tuck because the plastic surgeon also performed liposuction and fat transfer to the hips.
