Women's sports bras after mastectomy

Equipment
1

I have an unusual question: my wife has had a single-sided mastectomy this summer and wants to start doing sports regularly again. (She has received the green light from her doctor.)

I wanted to surprise her with new sports bras and wanted to see what to get. Here are the options as far as I can tell:

  • Make do with regular sports bras, adjusting the sizing if necessary.
  • Get specialty bras from a specialty shop (she has some of those, but they are pricey, very pricey).
  • Perhaps some specialty bras are sold in regular shops/online.

One thing to add: at least for sports, she doesn’t seem to care that someone can see she doesn’t have a left breast anymore.

2

Without knowing anything about your wife (nor am I asking), this feels like a situation in which you,

  1. Try to definitively figure out what she wants in advance (or even if she truly knows, yet). I can see there being potential for confusion regarding image/self-image expectations. Suppose you spend a chunk of money on a specialty bra that have one-sided padding. She receives this surprise gift; does she then wonder if you’re consciously and/or subconsciously doing it because you’re unhappy with her new physical shape and wish she still had two breasts (or some other potential mis-interpretation of some other purchase you make).

  2. Pay the cost if you can absorb it, even if rather pricey.

Don’t feel any need to explain/justify anything in reply.

3

I understand the desire to surprise her but I would just take her to a specialty shop that deals with mastectomy.
My spouse went through the same issue 20 years ago. Specialty shops are very helpful

4

That’s an excellent point and I should have addressed this in my first post: she doesn’t know whether she wants constructive surgery at this point. At our last post-op appointment with her oncologist, we (= wife and doctor) decided to postpone the discussion on reconstructive surgery. But she knows she wants to get active again, she has the itch.

Thanks, I’ll do that. She got some bras from a specialty shops and got others order-made. But women (rightfully) have lots of bras, so potentially she has to replace a lot.

5

My wife recently got involved with a group called ‘Knitted Knockers’. I really have no idea how these would work in an exercise setting (i.e. sweat/moisture), but I’m guessing they have some experience with this type of thing.