There are many women out there who are insecure about the size or shape of their breasts. Today, most plastic surgeries done in the United States is breast augmentation. Increasingly- breast cancer is the number one killer in women worldwide. This has lead to women being less willing to get under the knife. However, if women who are unsatisfied with the nature of their breasts, but don't want surgery- what are the alternatives?

Fat transfer is one alternative to breast implants. First, the patient will need to go through a couple weeks of using BRAVA, a breast enhancement tool created by Dr. Roger K. Khouri. It's a bra with a suction-pump attached to it, and women are supposed to wear it for 10 hours a day for several weeks. This will provide more room in the breast for the fat tissue to go. Then once this is complete, the patient will go in for surgery that is identical to the procedure of liposuction, where the surgeon will take fat from the patients body and place it in another area, in this case it would be the patient's breasts. With the pre-expansion method before surgery, 80% of the healthy fat cells will survive in the breast, compared to 55% without the BRAVA. With this alternative women can expect to go up a cup size, and they will still have full sensations in their breast and nipple area.

Women can also have natural breast augmentation performed on them without the use of pre-expansion tools. The patient will be completely awake when the surgery is taking place. Compared to unnatural breast surgery, there will be no incision in natural augmentation as the fat is taken from the body using a needle and then injected into the breast, therefore the patient won't experience any scarring. While natural augmentation is slightly more expensive than silicone, the procedure only needs to be done once. Those who decide to take the silicone route may need a second surgery down the road in the end making them pay more money than if they just did it by injecting their own fat cells.

Injections of Macrolane can also be another alternative to breast implants. Macrolane is made up of hyaluronic acid that is naturally produced in the body- mainly found in the fluids of the human eye and joints. This is recommended for women who have a size A-C cup breast looking to gain shape back in their breast due to loss of weight or breast feeding. The treatment only needs to be done in one day, the patient is awake while the injection is happening, it does not hurt and there's no surgical scarring. The only downside to Macrolane is that it can last up to 12 months before the patient has to go back in for another injection. After the first couple of years the injections will become less and less. This procedure is safe, because Macrolane is a natural reoccurring acid in the body that breaks down naturally over time. There is possible swelling for 2 weeks because Macrolane attracts water, which gets filled up in the breast making them tender. This will go down after that time. Patients have even reported going back to their daily exercise routines after a week. Many patients also will see results of cup size enlargement of up to 1 1/2 cups.

There are many other alternatives out there to surgical breast enlargement beyond what has been mentioned above. Before going through with any type of body enlargement, make sure to research all the risks and especially for women, know what types of chemicals are being used in the procedures to ensure there is nothing harmful in them that could later lead to cancer development.