Leg Liposuction Turkey

One person tells us her thighs rub raw on hot days. Another can't find jeans that fit both waist and hips. A third has run for ten years and still has the same soft patch above each knee. Most of them are a perfectly healthy weight, which only adds to the frustration.

Leg liposuction in Turkey can solve a lot of this. The leg is also, though, where liposuction gets misused most often. That's why we've organised this page as a walk down the leg, starting at the hip and finishing at the ankle, with a straight answer for each stop along the way.

The outer thigh and the saddlebags

Saddlebags sit on the outer thigh, just under the hip bone. Plenty of very fit women have them. The good news is that they usually do well with liposuction. The outer-thigh skin tends to be thick and springy, and after the fat comes out it pulls in tidily.

Take them away and trousers and skirts hang differently, once the swelling has gone. We often treat them together with the hips and flanks, since from waist to thigh the eye reads one continuous curve.

The inner thigh and chafing

Inner thighs come up more than any other leg area, and usually the complaint is chafing. When the thighs rub with every step, summer gets uncomfortable and clothes wear through at the seam.

They're also where the leg is least forgiving. Inner-thigh skin is thin to start with. Weight loss and age take its spring away earlier than they do elsewhere on the body. If the pinch test shows the skin won't tighten, removing fat leaves it hanging and creased. In that case a thigh lift at €3,200 does more for you than four zones of liposuction at €4,300.

Many people mention wanting a "thigh gap". Whether you have one depends heavily on the width of your pelvis and how your hips are set, not just on fat. Liposuction can reduce rubbing a lot. It can't change your bone structure.

The front and back of the thigh

The front of the thigh is usually treated lightly, if at all. The fat layer is thinner and irregularities show more easily. Occasionally there's a soft bulge just above the kneecap, and we treat that as part of the knee.

At the back, the tricky spot is where the thigh joins the buttock. Just below the buttock crease there's a band of fat, sometimes called the banana roll, that helps support the buttock. Remove too much from that spot and the buttock can drop and the crease can double, which is very hard to correct. A careful surgeon treats this area sparingly or leaves it alone. If you want more shape at the buttocks themselves, a Brazilian butt lift adds it rather than taking anything away.

The knees

Fat on the inner side of the knee is a common complaint. On an otherwise slim leg, that little pad still softens the outline between thigh and calf. It's a quick operation through a couple of tiny cuts, and people are often surprised how much better their legs look in skirts and shorts afterwards.

Skin around the knee is thin, so less is taken and the work is done with fine instruments. Swelling here takes longer than you might expect to go down.

Calves and ankles

Calves and ankles are the most declined requests on our list, and it's worth explaining why. Most of the width of a calf is muscle, not fat, and liposuction can't make muscle smaller. What fat there is over the muscle is often only a thin layer, and the skin is tight.

The lower leg also has the slowest drainage in the body. Swelling after calf or ankle liposuction can last for many months, and in some people the lymph drainage doesn't fully recover. So we only operate where there's a clear layer of fat that the examination can feel. Where the calf is mostly muscle, we'll tell you so, and surgery isn't the answer.

Lipoedema: when the fat is the condition

Lipoedema is a condition of fat tissue that affects mainly women, and it often goes undiagnosed for years. The pattern is distinctive. Both legs are affected evenly. The fat is tender when pressed and bruises easily. It doesn't shrink with diet even when the upper body slims down. And it ends sharply just above the ankle, leaving the feet normal, which can give a "cuff" appearance.

Recognise yourself in that description? Then a diagnosis should come before any cosmetic quote. Treating lipoedema with liposuction is, in practice, a different undertaking. More volume is usually removed, the technique has to protect the lymph vessels, and several sessions are common. It's typically done alongside compression and other treatment managed by a specialist.

We assess for lipoedema when you send photos, and the photo of your feet and ankles is a big part of that. If the pattern fits, we'll say so and explain what we'd recommend, which may well be assessment at home first.

Who's a good candidate for thigh liposuction?

Those who get the best results usually have one or two well-defined pockets, say saddlebags or inner knees, that haven't budged in years at a steady weight. When pinched, their skin snaps back. They aren't prone to bruising, and pressing on the fat doesn't hurt. They want a better outline rather than smaller legs overall.

The people who are disappointed tend to fall into one of the groups described above. Their thigh skin is already loose, their calves are mostly muscle, or their legs have the pattern of lipoedema. Some are still losing weight and hope surgery will finish the job. None of those is a good reason for leg liposuction in Turkey, or anywhere else, and we'd rather tell you than take your booking.

Combining legs with other areas

Hardly anyone comes in about their legs alone. Where there are saddlebags there are often fuller hips and flanks too, and treating them in the same session gives a cleaner line from waist to knee. Every extra area adds a zone, so a plan that includes hips, flanks and two leg areas might be five or six zones, which also changes the stay to six nights.

That's still one operation, priced on our published list, but the anaesthetist reviews the total before anything is confirmed. If the plan is too big for one session, we'll split it, usually doing the trunk first and the legs on a second visit. Combined trips need a little more planning, because the legs need compression stockings while the trunk needs a garment of its own.

What leg liposuction can't do

Cellulite is the most common disappointment. The dimpling comes from fibrous bands tethering the skin, and liposuction doesn't treat it. In some cases, removing fat beneath cellulite can make it look a little more obvious.

Liposuction also can't reduce muscle anywhere on the leg, and it can't tighten skin that has lost its spring. Those three limits explain most of the unhappy leg results we see from elsewhere.

Leg liposuction recovery

Recovery after leg liposuction is slower than after the trunk, mainly because of gravity. Your legs are the lowest part of your body, so fluid collects there for longer.

Expect to live in full-length compression stockings, or a leg garment, for six to eight weeks; they come off only for the shower. On the day of surgery itself, the nurses will have you walking. That matters more for legs than for any other area, as the legs are where clots usually start, and it's also why calf pumps are on throughout the operation.

For several weeks your ankles and lower legs will probably puff up by the evening, more so if the knees or calves were treated. Put your feet up whenever you sit. Desk work is usually possible after about a week. Running and leg-heavy exercise wait around six weeks. The thighs settle over three to four months, but below the knee it can take six months before the result is worth judging.

Sending your photos

Take photos of both legs while standing, from the front, from one side and from behind, plus one of your feet and ankles. Let us know what you weigh, whether that's changed lately, and whether your legs feel tender or bruise easily. From Istanbul, a surgeon will point out the zones that would help, the price, whether a thigh lift would serve you better, and whether there's any sign of lipoedema. For how liposuction works in general, see our liposuction page, and for the details of each step of leg liposuction in Turkey, we're happy to talk you through it.

Leg liposuction for men

Men ask about their legs much less often, and when they do it's usually the outer or inner thighs. Male thigh fat tends to be firmer, and occasionally the ultrasound of VASER liposuction helps. The same honesty about muscle applies: a muscular calf or thigh won't get smaller with liposuction.

Leg liposuction cost in Turkey

On our list the leg is split into four zones: outer thigh, inner thigh, knee, and the calf and ankle together. Both legs are treated together, so one zone means that area on both sides. Two zones are €3,100, three are €3,700 and four are €4,300, and that's the full cost, with anaesthesia, the hospital night and stockings included.

For up to four zones you'll be with us in Istanbul for four nights. The first night after surgery is spent in hospital. UK clinics typically quote €3,200 to €7,000 for this, and American ones €2,600 to €6,900, going by the comparison table. Make sure any quote names the zones. "Legs" on its own can mean one area or four.

Leg liposuction before and after photos

When you look at leg liposuction before and after photos, don't just look at the front. Turn to the rear views, and study the places where one area runs into the next. A good result flows from hip to thigh to knee without steps or hollows. Pay attention to how long after surgery the photos were taken. Legs photographed at six weeks will still be swollen, especially around the knees and ankles.

Reviews written at four to six months are the most useful for the same reason. They also tend to be honest about how long the swelling lasted.