More than skin deep: Sensation after mastectomy

Amy Russell-Parliman, MHA, knew that intuitively; she long considered herself sensual. Before breast cancer, her breasts and intimacy were deeply connected.

Then, in 2014, she had a double mastectomy and lost feeling across her chest and underarms — a common, yet underdiscussed, side effect of the procedure.

“To lose that sensation – over the years, you lose the desire to be touched,” says Amy. “My husband never has made me feel anything other than beautiful, and he’s tried to make me comfortable.” However, not feeling his loving touch or embrace on her skin has taken a toll on her mental health.

“I thought that there was a certain level [of numbness] that you were supposed to tolerate, so I didn’t bring it up,” says Amy. “Looking back, I would have spoken up sooner.”

As in Amy’s experience, nerve damage and loss of sensation can profoundly affect the emotional and physical health of many people. Medicine is evolving, however, and new techniques are making it possible for people to regain feeling after surgery that cuts nerves. These techniques can also help people regain comfort, intimacy, and a sense of control.

What is Resensation?

Resensation, a term trademarked by health technology company Axogen, is a way to repair nerves during surgery. The procedure uses donated, sterilized human nerve tissue to reconnect the cut chest nerves. In many cases, this nerve graft technique can restore feeling in the breast and chest.

Resensation is usually performed at the same time as breast reconstruction or aesthetic flat closure, but sometimes it can happen later.

LBBC Medical Advisory Board Member Jonathan Bank, MD, FACS, a board-certified plastic surgeon, offers this technique to people undergoing mastectomy who want a chance to get feeling and comfort back in their chests — and potentially their lives. He is also training U.S. doctors to perform the technique.

As a leader in the field of sensory restoration during or after breast surgery, Dr. Bank is helping breast cancer thrivers understand that there are more options. Chronic pain and numbness do not need to be the norm.

“If you cut an electric cable [in a house] and you don’t do something to reconnect it, it’s a live wire. Same thing with the nerves. If you cut it and don’t do something with that edge, that can cause chronic pain, an electric shock, burning shock,” explains Dr. Bank. “If you can avoid that and reconnect the live wire as soon as you cut it, you can avoid those kinds of problems.”

Fully restored sensation is not guaranteed, but most patients have had promising results. Dr. Bank estimates that about 80% of women who have breast reconstruction using their own tissue get about 80% of their sensation restored with the Resensation technique.

While Amy did not have the Resensation procedure, others who have had the opportunity report meaningful improvements in sensation and quality of life.

Feeling again, at last

Thriver Jordana Shief Needle wasn’t deeply familiar with Resensation until she met Dr. Bank and Ron Israeli, MD, FACS.

Jordana, a mother of three and commercial real estate manager in Boston, Massachusetts, already had a long and complex medical history, including Crohn’s disease, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2021 at age 43.

Wanting a definitive surgical option, she told her care team she wanted a double mastectomy. Her care team, however, advised against it due to concerns about her infection risk. They recommended that she start chemotherapy right away.

After chemotherapy, she underwent multiple lumpectomies and axillary (underarm) lymph node removal. Jordana then underwent 30 rounds of radiation.

It was several months later, after attending a gala for The Breasties, that Jordana met Drs. Bank and Israeli. She had heard of Resensation before, but now she began to understand what it could mean for her. She told Drs. Bank and Israeli that she hadn’t had a double mastectomy but still wanted one. They told her: If that’s what she wanted, she should get one.

At another event a few months later, Jordana connected with other thrivers while she continued to learn more about Resensation and research her options. She made an informed decision to move forward with a double mastectomy and reconstruction in December of 2023. Surgeons performed Resensation as part of the procedure.

“I knew that was the way I wanted to go because I couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to feel my children hug me anymore,” she says.

Resensation is still an experimental technique, so some insurance companies may not cover the cost. Many patients have to pay at their own expense, which can make the procedure out of reach.

To afford the surgery, Jordana switched to a new health insurance company that covered out-of-state care in New York. She had to meet high out-of-pocket insurance costs, and she is grateful, saying, “It was a huge deal for us to be able to afford to do this surgery.”

After the mastectomy, reconstruction, and Resensation procedures, she felt even more fortunate: “I woke up from surgery, and I had sensation immediately. Even in the tip of my left recreated nipple.”

While she can feel her whole right breast, Jordana has numbness in her right nipple. Some nerve sensation may take up to 2 years to return after Resensation with reconstruction.

After several weeks of healing, Jordana enjoyed the feeling of her young children climbing on and hugging her — moments she has never taken for granted.

“I don’t know how to give words to the impact that this surgery had on my life and my mental well-being. I went from being angry, scared, and short-tempered … to all of a sudden, I felt free, and I felt healthy. I felt like I survived cancer,” says Jordana.

Healing a painful recovery

Like Jordana, breast cancer has been on Lisa Csensits’ radar for most of her life. At age 6, she knew exactly why her grandmother passed away. Then as a pre-teen, the worry set in.

“I think I spent my entire life fearing: Am I going to have cancer? Are my sister, my mother, the ones that are closest to me going to have cancer?” says Lisa, now 41.

The “what-ifs” that consumed her thoughts for years later turned into “whens.” Lisa is a previvor, a term for people who have a high risk of developing breast cancer. As a young adult, she worked with her healthcare team to start a screening plan. In her early 30s, while raising two children and navigating the question of “when” breast cancer might happen, Lisa started cycling. She had never been athletic before.

When Lisa’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, Lisa chose to undergo a preventive (sometimes called prophylactic), nipple-sparing double mastectomy with implant reconstruction.

After the procedure, her surgeon placed tissue expanders — temporary implants placed under the chest skin or muscle where the permanent implant will eventually go — but the pain was unbearable.

Between the feeling of constant stabbing under her right rib cage and left shoulder blade, she could barely reach for a cup in her pantry. Her muscles were constantly spasming, causing bruising across her chest and limiting her ability to cycle.

“I got to the point where I felt completely disabled,” says Lisa, who began regretting her decision. “I went from being the most fit I had ever been in my entire life to now feeling like I was completely limited in my mobility, living in pain every day, and not understanding what was going on.”

A second opinion with a breast oncologist led her to Dr. Bank, who performed a nerve reconstruction procedure during her implant exchange surgery in March 2021.

“The moment I woke up from the surgery he performed, all of that pain, the stabbing in my rib cage, the stabbing in my shoulder blade was immediately gone,” she says. “Dr. Bank gave me my life back. He took pain away from me that I thought I would have forever.”

She also regained feeling in her breasts and nipples. “I can still feel my nipples. I can touch my breasts, and I can feel myself touching my breasts. And I can do all that without pain. Not every person can say that,” says Lisa.

Lisa began training again. In 2022, Lisa became a USA Cycling Masters National Champion. In 2023 and 2024, she was a Team USA Member at the Masters World Cycling Championships in Scotland and Denmark.

“Never give up hope,” she says. “You should not give in to living in pain or discomfort. You should continue to advocate for yourself and seek answers.”

For more information on nerve repair during or after mastectomy, visit our breast reconstruction resources.