Like many ladies navigating menopause, Becca says she felt the modifications displaying up on her face earlier than she felt them wherever else. “I have a young spirit, but when I looked in the mirror, it didn’t match. The first thing I saw were these jowls and my neck,” she says. “I just wanted to feel like myself again. I didn’t want to look different, I wanted to look refreshed.”
At 57, she had hit that time in menopause the place hormone shifts had been affecting her pores and skin’s texture and tone. “I was scared to use estrogen cream because I’d previously had cancer, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to rely on hormones. But the sagging, the drooping—I couldn’t just continue down that road.”
A Larger Plan Than Anticipated
Rebecca began exploring facial rejuvenation procedures and located Houston facial plastic surgeon Raghu Athre, MD. What she anticipated to be a easy lower-face repair changed into one thing extra customized and in the end more practical.
“Originally I was thinking I’d just do something about the jowls,” she says. “But Dr. Athre looked at my face as a whole and helped me understand what had shifted and where.” Ultimately, she underwent a deep aircraft facelift and necklift, higher eyelid surgical procedure, a lip carry and a TCA chemical peel, all beneath native anesthesia.”
“I had part of my kidney removed just three months before, so I didn’t want to be put under again. Being able to do it all under local made a huge difference.”
Becca underwent a deep aircraft facelift, neck carry, higher blepharoplasty, lip carry and chemical peel to revive steadiness and brightness to her face. The Turnaround Second
The restoration wasn’t straightforward. “Those first five days I thought, what have I done? But by day seven, I could see the light. By day 14, I was wearing makeup and going out with friends. People were complimenting me, but no one could tell I’d had surgery.”
She was particularly fearful about seen scars. “I love wearing my hair up, and I thought those days were over,” she says. “But Dr. Athre placed the incisions so well, you can’t even see them. He did such an amazing job.”
One other concern was the “overdone” look she had seen on others. “We go to a lot of galas, and I didn’t want to be one of those women you look at and know she’s had work. I didn’t want to look windblown or stretched,” she says. “No one’s ever asked me if I had a facelift and that’s the best compliment.”
Even delicate enhancements made an enormous distinction. “I didn’t know this part under my nose had gotten so long with age until Dr. Athre suggested a lip lift. He also added a stitch to balance my bottom lip, which I didn’t expect, but I love. He just knew what would help everything come together.”
Her facet profile reveals lifted jowls, an outlined jawline and smoother pores and skin. Small Tweaks, Large Influence
Dr. Athre says Rebecca’s outcomes are the product of trying on the face holistically. “A lot of patients come in asking about one area, like their neck or jowls, but it’s about how those areas interact,” he explains. “We didn’t just treat a single zone. We made a series of small, strategic refinements that worked together.”
He says the deep aircraft approach made a distinction within the midface and jawline, whereas the peel addressed pores and skin thinning frequent in menopause. “When estrogen drops, the skin loses volume and texture. Rebecca’s skin had started to thin, and the peel helped restore its plumpness and tone.”
That strategy, seeing ageing not as one drawback however a group of modifications—is why he usually avoids the phrase facelift. “People think it means pulling everything up and back, but it’s more nuanced than that. It’s facial rejuvenation.”
Feeling Seen Once more
For Rebecca, the largest shift wasn’t simply bodily—it was emotional. “I went through a period where I felt invisible. And I’m not trying to brag, but when I was younger, I got noticed. That had stopped. Now? People notice me again. I feel cute again. I’m dressing up again. I’m not falling into the cracks.”
She encourages others to not wait too lengthy. “I tell people, do it younger so you can enjoy it longer. I wasn’t trying to turn back the clock. I just wanted to feel like myself again. And now, I do.”
