13 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Got My Mommy Makeover

“Menopause makeovers” are too. As estrogen dips, “many women tend to put on a little bit of weight in the upper chest, in front of the armpits, and in the upper arms—there’s a thickening of the torso, even in women who are continuing the same diet and exercise routines,” Steven Teitelbaum, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Los Angeles has told Allure. These patients may get a breast lift or reduction with liposuction around the lower back, upper arms, and/or stomach, unless they have had children, in which case they’d probably get a tummy tuck to address excess skin. Combining these procedures for a patient who’s a decade or so older than the typical “mommy” is increasingly common as Gen Xers experience menopause. They’re proving far more likely to do something about its physical changes than past generations, who went through menopause when both “the change” and plastic surgery were more hush-hush.

Whether you call them mommy makeovers or Ozempic makeovers or menopause makeovers, there’s a lot of curiosity around bundled plastic surgery at the moment. And the patients we’ve spoken to are here to satisfy it, sharing all of the things that they wish someone had told them before they signed up for their own particular package of body surgeries. Here, 13 truths of a multi-prong body makeover that can help you decide if it’s right for you—and how to navigate the experience.

Truth #1: You may need to split up your surgeries.

A lift here, a tuck there—getting a few different procedures done at the same time is a no-brainer from a sales and marketing perspective. You’re already under anesthesia, and who wouldn’t want a one-stop-shop for restoring their pre-pregnancy body? Financially, it makes sense, cutting down on anesthesia fees, facility fees, and time spent in the hospital or clinic. Plus, there’s all that adulting to contend with—the child care, the dog walker, the household chores. It’s often easier to rearrange your life for a single recovery period. Still, some people choose to leave time between the different surgeries that, when put together, make up a “mommy makeover.”

Kathleen G.,* age 46, had lipo—on her abdomen, hips, flank, and back—a few months before getting the rest of her mommy makeover (a breast lift and implants, and a tummy tuck). “It was too much at once. [Otherwise,] you’re not giving your body time to heal,” she says. “The thing that sucks with lipo is the swelling—a very uncomfortable, tight feeling. I had some numbness, too, [for about] three months.” She was relieved to have time to recover between procedures. Dr. Redman has another reason why he sometimes advises patients to split up their surgeries: “Too much time [under general anesthesia] increases the risk of blood clots, infections, and complications from anesthesia.”

Your surgeon may also choose not to book one mammoth surgery because they want to make sure they’re performing at their best. “I’m used to doing these big, big procedures, so I’ve built up a stamina for doing that,” says Dr. Rednam. “Other people can only [operate for] two or three hours before they start feeling tired. It depends on the comfort level of the surgeon.” And of course, there’s scheduling: Having multiple procedures at once requires a longer recovery time and sometimes that’s not in the cards. “ I took 10 days off work after my breast augmentation, and two and a half weeks off after the tummy tuck,” says Hailey H.,* age 50, of her experience getting the two surgeries on different days. If she had done both procedures on the same day, she might have had a lengthier, more painful recovery.

Truth #2: You’re going to get a new belly button.

Well, technically, it’s the same belly button—but it will be in a new, flatter location. During a tummy tuck, the surgeon cuts around the belly button, leaving it connected to the muscle underneath. After removing the excess skin in the area, they create a new hole, “pop the belly button back through and sew it into place, kind of like if you undid a button on your shirt, moved it down one buttonhole, and then pushed it through the next buttonhole down,” says David Shafer, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City.