Week 3 and my left has dropped but the right is still sitting up under my collarbone. How far behind can one side be before it is a problem?

#1LaurenP83(Joined Jun 2026 · 14 posts)August 30, 2026, 10:41 pm

Ok so I'm three weeks tomorrow and something has started bothering me that wasn't there last week, which feels backwards.

Around day 15 or 16 my left side visibly changed. It got softer, the fullness moved down, the crease is where it's meant to be and it honestly looks like a boob. The right has done NOTHING. It's still firm, still sitting high with all the volume up top, still that slightly square shape from the first week. I'm right handed and it's my dominant side, if that matters. Same implant both sides, 335cc, dual plane, inframammary.

So now in a bra I look uneven, worse than I did at week one when at least they were both wrong in the same way. I keep googling and everything says "asymmetry is normal early on" but nothing tells you HOW uneven is normal or how long the lag can be before it's a problem. Is one side being a full 2 weeks behind the other something people see? Is there anything I can do to hurry the right one along, I've read about massage and strap bands and my surgeon hasn't mentioned either. My next review isn't until week 6 and I don't want to be that patient ringing about nothing.

#2Jade R.(Joined Mar 2025 · 18 posts)August 31, 2026, 8:19 am

You've just described my recovery almost exactly, right down to the dominant side. Mine lagged about three weeks behind the left and I spent all of it convinced the right implant was stuck. It wasn't. It came down in its own time, went from firm to soft over a couple of weeks around week 5 to 6, and by my three month check my surgeon had to look at her notes to remember which side had been the slow one.

The dominant arm thing came up at my review. Bigger, tighter chest muscle on that side, apparently, so it holds the implant up for longer. Makes sense when you think about how much more that arm does.

#3sixweekspost(Joined Feb 2025 · 19 posts)August 31, 2026, 2:02 pm

Two weeks behind is nothing. Mine was closer to five. The evening out is the last part of settling, not the first, so you're judging the race at the halfway point.

#4Miss Charlotte VaneSurgical moderator(Joined Sep 2024 · 58 posts)September 2, 2026, 10:08 am

LaurenP83 said:

Is one side being a full 2 weeks behind the other something people see?

Yes, and it is one of the most common things patients raise at the three to six week review, so please don't file yourself under "ringing about nothing". A lag of two, three, even six weeks between sides is well within what we expect, and it is more common in dual plane and submuscular placements than over the muscle, because the muscle is doing most of the holding.

The mechanism, briefly. In the early weeks the implant is held high by three things: swelling, a tight, newly stretched pocket, and the pectoralis major sitting over its upper part. All three relax at their own pace, and they are rarely symmetrical. The dominant side has a stronger, bulkier pectoral that tends to take longer to release, so the implant on that side often descends later. Swelling also differs side to side, and so does the amount of surgical release needed on each side, because no two breasts on one chest are the same to begin with. The result is the staggered drop you're seeing, and it typically evens up as the settling process plays out over 3 to 6 months. A useful rule of thumb from the clinic: don't compare sides to each other until at least the three month mark, and don't judge the final position until six.

On hurrying it along: massage, strap bands and compression across the upper pole all exist and some surgeons prescribe them, but they are surgeon specific, and used without instruction they can do harm as well as nothing, particularly with certain implant types and incision placements. If your surgeon hasn't mentioned them, that is a decision rather than an oversight. Ask at your week 6 review rather than starting anything from a forum. The same goes for arm use; some surgeons restrict the dominant arm for longer for exactly this reason.

What I'd want you to ring about before week 6, rather than wait: a side that suddenly becomes larger, tighter or more painful, particularly with bruising, which needs excluding as a haematoma; redness, warmth or fever, which needs excluding as infection; or a side that has already softened and dropped and then becomes firmer and rises again over the following weeks or months, which is the pattern we watch for with capsular contracture. A right side that simply hasn't started yet, is comfortable, and looks the way it did at week one is the slow twin, not the sick one. If a marked difference is still there once both sides have genuinely settled, that becomes a conversation about whether it needs anything, and it belongs with your surgeon, who has your measurements and photographs, not with a thread.

#5Natalie88(Joined Nov 2024 · 26 posts)September 3, 2026, 7:47 pm

Over the muscle here and mine were level within about ten days, which backs up the muscle explanation. My friend with under the muscle had a slow right side for weeks and now you'd never know. The dominant side thing seems to be one of those facts everyone learns at their six week check and nobody puts in the leaflet.

#6LaurenP83(Joined Jun 2026 · 14 posts)September 16, 2026, 9:29 pm

Update: I did ring. The nurse asked three questions (pain, warmth, sudden change), got three nos, and said "slow side, very normal, see you at week 6" in the tone of someone who says it twenty times a week. Which was oddly the most reassuring part.

And then on day 31, a little ahead of the week 5 to 6 that jade-r described, the right one softened. Not fully down yet but the volume has clearly started moving and the square look has gone. Still a bit behind the left but they're now the same kind of wrong rather than two different kinds, which is apparently progress. Keeping the strap bands off unless surgeon says otherwise.