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NOW MAGAZINE - 2 JUNE 2004
'I sold my house to pay for the op'
Student Jessica Pritchard, 23, from Bournemouth had a breast reduction last year.
By the time I was 11 years old, my breasts were already well developed. All the other girls at school were flat-chested, but I seemed to get bigger by the day. Boys would stare all the time and though I felt flattered by the attention at first, I grew to hate the wolf whistles and comments.
One incident that sticks in my mind is when I was 14 and a PE teacher told me I ought to get a better bra as I was wobbling all over the place. She said it in front of the whole class and I wanted to crawl under my desk. I decided there and then that I'd have an operation to make my 34G breasts smaller as soon as I could.
None of my female relatives has big boobs, so they didn't understand how I felt. Mum told me not to be so silly when I complained about my size. But it was a nightmare. I couldn't buy the kind of clothes that I wanted to wear. Even though I was a dress size 12, I had to get size 16 shirts that just hung from my chest.
Once I asked a friend if I could borrow one of her tops and she went silent, before telling me no because I'd stretch it. And every summer was horrendous. While my friends were all striding up and down the beach in their bikinis, I'd be too embarrassed to even stand up.
After my 16th birthday, I went to my doctor to see if [I] could have a breast reduction on the NHS, but it took two years to get an assessment. A psychologist asked me to show her what my breasts looked like, but I was so ashamed I just couldn't. On those grounds she said I wasn't mentally affected enough to have the operation on the NHS. But I couldn't see her logic - it was obviously getting me down.
At 18 my breasts sagged terribly and I couldn't even see my nipples. I was in a steady relationship, but I didn't like to undress in front of my boyfriend. After four years together we bought a house, but we weren't getting on. When we argued he would make fun of my breasts, which affected me badly. He wore my confidence down and I started to hate myself.
I'd had enough, so I made the decision to get out of the relationship and sell the house to pay for a breast reduction. Then I booked a consultation with a surgeon who my doctor had recommended. The price of the operation was £4,500 - a lot of money, but I didn't care.
I went into The Harbour Hospital in Poole on 16 December last year and when I woke up after the surgery everything was just a blur. I couldn't stop retching because of the general anaesthetic and my chest felt tight, but I could tell straight away that my breasts were much smaller. When they took the surgical padding off it was the first time I'd seen my nipples for years! I was ecstatic - it was such an amazing feeling to be a C-cup at last.
Now I feel fantastic. My new boyfriend Paul can't believe the change in me and I'm itching to show my breasts off, rather than hide them under baggy clothes. It's definitely the best decision I've ever made.
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