Majority of those seeking this service for beauty purposes are women aged between 30 and 70 years who want their breasts to take certain symmetry. Men with excess breast - a condition known as male gynecomastia - that make them have feminine looks are also said to be coming out to seek surgeries to reduce them.

Two women who spoke to Horizon admitted to have done the surgery so as to ‘look fine’, but refused to discuss the details of what happened.

“It is very private thing, and what I can tell you I did it to look good, and I cannot go into the details,” says Lydia (not her real name).

Her colleague, Jane (not her true name) said she did it so that she could put on certain types of trendy clothes and bras that are now selling in the local market. Looking attractive to her husband was another reason, she equipped.

This is the furthest they could reveal the reasons why they did it and how they feel. The issue of breast reduction or augmentation remains hush-hush even among women, particularly where it is done to make them look young and attractive.

Those who have undergone the surgery want men and fellow women to admire them, passing it as a natural endowment.

Generally, doctor say they are witnessing an increase in the number of women with excessive breast tissues that, medically, need to be reduced through surgery.

In this category are women with large and sagging breasts which are uncomfortable and restrict them to enjoy their day to day life.

Dr Tanga Audi, a plastic surgeon at Kenyatta National Hospital acknowledged that they are now seeing more women who want their breasts reduced. Out of these, 85 percent are for medical purposes and 15 percent want the surgery on cosmetic grounds.

Another doctor at a leading private hospital who spoke on anonymity basis said the demand for breast reduction surgery for cosmetic purposes is on the rise.

He has managed carry out such surgery on several women in recent months compared to one case he used to do previously in the same time frame.

Dr Audi says they have been turning away many women who come to the KNH to have their breast reduced for beauty reasons.

“Breast reductions we do here is for medical purposes to help those who genuinely have a problem with huge breasts that makes life uncomfortable.”

Some of the doctors interviewed by Horizon said breasts reduction or augmentation should not be done to please the partner or to enter into business that requires one to have breasts of a particular size.

At KNH, which attends to one woman with breast problem every week, the age, the location of the nipple of the breast, and the size of the breasts of the woman seeking breast reduction service are assessed before being attended to.

Those who do not meet this criterion are turned away as they are classified as seeking the service with ulterior motives. This has left with the money to seek the service in the private sector.

Doctors however say women who want their breasts reduced for beauty purposes have to be accompanied with their husbands or get their consent to avoid friction within the relationship.

“Sometimes husbands have turned violent wanting to know why their wives want to look younger at an age when they are expected to age gracefully,” says Dr Audi.

Breasts are part of a woman’s anatomical features that among other things, define her relationship with a man. There are a lot of emotional feelings attached to them, and women will do everything to have what they consider fulfilling.

Breast reduction or mammaplasties, involves removal of fat, glandular tissues and skin from the breasts, allowing it to become smaller, lighter and firm. The nipple and areola (the dark skin surrounding the nipple) are also manipulated and moved into their right position.

In most cases, reducing the breasts aims at giving the woman better shaped breasts that are proportional to her body.

Doctors say the procedure takes over five hours, incase of females and over two hours if it is a man. After surgery, the woman’s breasts are wrapped in surgical bra, with the healing taking at least two weeks.

The only problem is the woman who has undergone breast reduction may lose breast sensation and not be able to breastfeed normally. That’s why in some countries doctors advice those who want to do the surgery for beauty to do so after they have delivered their children.

However, there are no restrictions for women who do it on medical grounds, as some of them have breasts weighing over three kilograms instead of 500 grams.

Such women cannot find their size of bra in the market, and are forced to do without it or improvise.

They also experience intense neck, shoulder and back pain, psychological problems, reduced nipple sensation and stooping from the pressure exerted by the weighty breasts.

The breast reduction operation is supposed to assist these women to lead a normal life like any other women. Because of this, hospitals like KNH charge around Sh 10,000 for the surgery.

But in recent times, more women are turning to the procedure for cosmetic purposes, even when their breasts are not huge enough to warrant that.

“The surgery was made to help people who have medical problems and not for beauty. That is why the charges are very expensive,” says Dr Audi.

Although the demand for breast reduction is the leading surgery in Kenya, women with abnormally tiny breasts are also seeking to have their breasts augmented with implants that are placed under or above the chest muscles.

These implants are made up of a silicone shell filled with a salt water solution or silicone gel. Before being implanted, a woman determines her desired size of implants by trying them first. Once satified, the choosen size is inserted.

Plastic surgeons say women who go for augmentation may feel that their breasts are too small or are of unpleassnt shape especially after giving birth.

The only problem is the price of these surgeries has locked out many poor women would also wish to have their breasts have certain shapes and size.

In other countries where the demand has reached astronomical levels, banks, insurance companies, and the government are stepping in to help those who are in need of the service.

In the United States, some banks are even offering soft loans to women want to reduce or augment their breasts. While in Britain, the National Insurance Scheme has provisions that cater for women with breast problems.

Private insurance companies also have attractive covers for the same in most countries in the developed world.

Unlike Kenya, these countries are also attending to homosexuals who want to augment their breasts sizes.

But those who doctors sympathize with are men with excess breasts tissue fat that make them feel embarrassed, besides having to endure the pain accompanying such un abnormality. Research shows that huge breast in men that may be caused by hormonal imbalance or just bad luck, affects up to 60 percent of them.