It is also important to realize the limits of breast reconstruction, and what cannot be achieved by plastic surgery. If you decide to have reconstruction, what your plastic surgeon creates is not a real breast. It is a breast form attached under your skin and will never have the sensation that your original breast did. Your artificial breast may feel normal to touch by others, but the sensation of being touched will never feel completely the same to you.

Reconstructive surgery has made many women feel emotionally and physically more comfortable with themselves and their appearance after breast cancer surgery. Reconstruction is for women who want something more permanent than a prosthesis.

Some women feel that putting on a prosthesis everyday isn't natural, and reminds them of their battle with cancer. Plastic surgery has helped them put their battle with cancer out of their minds for them the additional surgery is "worth it."