Featured Image Credit: ITV
Topics: Health, UK News, ITV, This Morning
Gerrard Kaonga
A woman has spoken of the pain she has suffered for years due to the size of her breasts, and why she is desperate to have reduction surgery.
The British woman revealed that her large breasts are ‘ruining her life’ and is determined to do something about them.
30-year-old Melissa Ashcroft has said she has lived with these issues for years and spoke about the painful symptoms she has been dealing with.
Speaking on UK breakfast show This Morning, Ashcroft said she first noticed that she was ‘developing differently’ to her peers when she was about 14 years old - despite initially being quite 'flat chested' as a pre-teen.
Advert
Speaking to her mom about the issue, she was told it was perfectly normal, saying that it was just how they were, with her also being large-breasted.
However, Ashcroft noted that things started to really cause her more serious physical issues when she was around 19 or 20.
She explained: “That is just when it was getting ridiculous, the pains I was getting in my shoulders, I was getting cuts on my bra straps, I thought this can’t continue, this can’t go on.
“I’ve got a slipped disk because of it.”
Speaking about her desire to have breast reduction surgery on the National Health Service (NHS), Ashcroft told the two hosts that doctors told her that she has got to have a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) before she can have the surgery.
She explained: “My BMI has got to be 27, I have got to maintain it for a year... I think my current BMI is 35 point something.”
She added that doctors need her BMI at a lower and safer level because of the risks of blood clots and other complications.
Ashcroft was asked whether she would consider taking any weight loss jabs to get her BMI lower but noted that she has seen one of the possible side effects is thyroid cancer, something she is not comfortable considering due to her underactive thyroid and family members who have dealt with tumors.
She went on to say due to the issues so far in her attempts to get breast reduction surgery she considered trying to go private and sourcing the money herself.
The mother stated that she started a GoFundMe page to raise the funds, but it was shut down only a few days later, and she still doesn’t know the reason why.
She says if she wants to go private, she needs about £13,000 ($17,309) for the operation after initially thinking she only needed £10,000, ($13,314).
For the time being, she is trying to lower her BMI with swimming while trying to balance her family life.