Thigh Lift Turkey

Most operations heal on parts of the body you can rest. The thighs are different.

So this page is written around movement. We begin with the deciding question and work through to the healing weeks.

Lift or liposuction?

A thigh lift removes skin. Where the inner thighs are full and the skin is still elastic, we'd normally suggest liposuction instead (see our leg liposuction page). Hanging or wrinkled skin is another matter, since suction can only empty it. That's when a lift makes sense.

On the thigh, unusually, the option without a long scar costs more. Four zones of thigh liposuction are €4,300; a thigh lift is €3,200. When we recommend liposuction, we're pointing you to the dearer of the two. When we recommend the lift, it isn't because it earns us more.

Some people have both problems. For them, liposuction and the lift happen in the same operation, fat first, skin second.

Inner thigh lift or outer thigh lift?

Inner is the usual request, and after a large weight loss it's usually the right one. Others come to us with the opposite pattern. Their inner thighs are fine, and the loose skin is on the outer thigh and hip, where it has slid down and gathered in folds.

Each needs its own incision. Treat the inside when the slack is on the outside and you've bought a scar without fixing anything. We decide which applies from standing photos, front and back, because lying down hides loose thigh skin almost completely.

Men ask for thigh lifts mostly after major weight loss, when loose skin on the inner thighs causes rubbing and rashes. The operation and the €3,200 price are the same. Men's thicker skin can mean slightly more tissue to remove, and the groin scar is usually well hidden by ordinary underwear.

Without a big weight loss

Not everyone who asks has lost a lot of weight. Some women notice the inner thighs softening in their forties and fifties, or after pregnancies, with a little crepey skin near the groin and nothing much lower down. For them a mini lift is often enough, with a shorter scar that sits wholly inside the crease. A few find their skin still has enough spring for liposuction instead, and we'd rather tell them that than operate.

The four types of thigh lift

Most thigh lifts are medial. A crescent of skin is taken from the top of the inner thigh, and the line is hidden in the groin crease. It's the right choice when the slack sits high.

A mini thigh lift uses the same line, kept shorter, for a smaller amount of slack confined to the top of the inner thigh.

The vertical thigh lift adds a second line running down the inside of the thigh, sometimes towards the knee. It's for people, usually after major weight loss, whose loose skin runs the length of the leg. It removes much more, at the cost of a scar that shows in shorts.

The lateral, or outer, thigh lift runs along the bikini line and curves up towards the hip, pulling the outer thigh upwards. It's often done as part of a body lift, through one continuous incision.

On the day of surgery

On the day of your thigh lift in Turkey, the surgeon marks your thighs while you stand, because loose skin hangs differently once you lie down. Those lines show exactly where the incision will go and how much skin is to be removed. You're asleep under general anaesthetic for the operation. Afterwards you wake up in a compression garment, and sometimes with small drains to collect fluid for a day or so. If drains are used, they usually come out before you leave hospital, and the dressings are checked before you go back to the hotel.

Most people are surprised that the groin is less painful than they expected. What they notice more is tightness when they try to straighten up or take a longer step, which is the repair doing its job. Nurses get you up and walking that evening or the next morning.

What happens to the scar

As hiding places for scars go, the groin crease is a good one. Underwear and swimwear sit over it, and the fold itself does the rest. That's a real advantage over an arm lift.

The less comfortable truth is that inner thigh scars move. Every stride pulls on that skin. The other leg rubs it. Sweat keeps it damp. Within a year or so the line has often widened slightly and slipped down, sometimes to just below the crease. Our surgeons fix the deeper tissue to the strong layer at the groin so the skin edge isn't doing the holding. It makes a real difference, though no technique holds the scar perfectly still.

If you have the vertical version, expect a second scar down the inner thigh. Pale in time, but you'll see it in shorts.

Leg swelling and the groin

Everything the leg drains passes through the groin, right where an inner thigh lift is done. Most people's legs swell for a while after surgery, then settle. Lasting swelling, called lymphoedema, is uncommon, but there's no undoing it if it develops. If your legs have swollen before, or you have significant vein disease, we may advise against the operation. That's why we ask about your legs early on.

Clots and the flight home

Leg surgery followed by a long flight is one of the riskier combinations in plastic surgery when it comes to blood clots. Calf pumps run throughout the operation, you'll be up and moving on surgery day, and the check at around day seven decides whether you're fit to fly. We don't treat that appointment as a formality. If something isn't right, the flight waits. On the plane, an aisle seat, plenty of water and a walk up the aisle every hour or so all help.

Thigh lift recovery

Thigh lift recovery is mostly about how you move. The rules sound contradictory at first. You're walking on day one, to keep clots away. But walk in short steps. If you take big steps, squat down or sit with your knees apart, the new groin wound gets pulled, and a scar that's pulled early ends up wider.

Plan on six nights in Istanbul; the first one is spent in hospital. Compression stays on for somewhere between four and six weeks.

Light activity returns around day ten, sometimes a few days later. Running, cycling, deep squats and anything that spreads the legs wide wait six to eight weeks. The new shape of the thighs has usually settled by about three months.

Thigh lift results

Thigh lift results hold up well over time. Ask patients what changed most and the mirror hardly comes up. They talk about walking through a summer without chafing, or wearing a dress without cycling shorts underneath. That usually comes within weeks, well before the scar has settled.

It's worth saying that a thigh lift won't make your legs thinner. If your thighs meet because they're simply large, the lift does little about that, which is part of what the examination checks.

Thigh lift before and after photos

Thigh lift before and after photos can flatter. Shot lying down, or with the legs pressed together, almost any thigh looks smooth. Trust the ones taken standing up, feet a little apart, front and back.

Where the thighs meet is the place to study, along with the scar's position: has it stayed in the crease or moved below it? The scar goes on changing after the thighs have settled, so ask for photos of the same patient at six months and after a year. Reviews written after the first year are the most honest about how the scar has behaved.

Weight first

Six steady months on the scales come first. If you've had a gastric sleeve or other weight loss operation, we mean a true plateau, not just slower loss. If your weight changes a lot afterwards, the remaining skin can loosen again. Operating a second time on the same thigh is harder, and the scar is usually worse.

Smoking is a particular problem here. Nicotine narrows the small blood vessels that a wound in the groin fold depends on. Please stop several weeks before surgery.

Thigh lift with other operations

After big weight loss, the thighs are rarely the only concern. A lateral thigh lift is often joined to a body lift, and an arm lift or tummy tuck may be part of the same plan. How much can be done at once depends on how long you'd be asleep, which our anaesthetist judges independently, splitting the plan into stages if needed, so a thigh lift in Turkey can be the first step of a longer plan.

Thigh lift cost in Turkey

A thigh lift in Turkey costs €3,200 with us, whichever of the four techniques you need. That covers your surgeon and anaesthetist, the hospital night and compression garments. Airport transfers, an interpreter on hand and check-ups across the first year are part of it as well. We arrange your hotel too, listed separately on the plan.

Because the price is the same for every technique, nothing about it pushes us towards a longer incision. If another operation is planned for the same session, the combination discount is shown in your quote.

How the price compares abroad

Abroad it costs a good deal more. In Britain, according to the comparison table, a thigh lift runs from €6,100 to €13,650. American prices start at €6,300 and climb as high as €21,550. Germany sits lower, at €4,000 to €6,000. Vertical lifts are usually the priciest version everywhere. When you compare quotes, check which technique each one covers, and whether the clinic examined you standing before naming a figure.

Your first question: is my looseness skin or fat, and is it inside or outside? Then: which technique, with the incision where? What stops the scar sliding? How is groin lymph drainage protected? And can I see inner thigh scars at six months, then again a year and a half on? Specific answers to the scar question are a good sign of real experience.