How much does fat transfer breast augmentation cost in Beverly Hills?

Fat transfer breast augmentation with Dr. Cat Begovic in Beverly Hills is a $56,500 to $63,500 surgeon's fee, one fee that includes the lipo 360 harvest of the abdomen, flanks, hips and back; the operating room and anesthesia are quoted at the consultation. Fees are typical ranges; a more complex case can cost more. The $500 consultation fee is credited toward your surgery.

Is breast augmentation with fat transfer the same as natural breast augmentation?

Yes. Natural breast augmentation, breast fat transfer, breast fat grafting and fat transfer to the breast are everyday names for autologous fat grafting to the breast, the medical term: your own fat, harvested by liposuction, washed and injected into the breasts. Dr. Cat Begovic performs it in Beverly Hills herself, from the liposuction to the last injection, one major surgery per surgical day.

How much fat survives after fat transfer to the breast?

In Dr. Cat's experience more than 80 to 90 percent of the transferred fat survives, which is why her patients rarely need a second round. Survival depends on how gently the fat is harvested, on washing it so only intact cells are transferred, on placing it in small amounts at several depths without overstuffing, and on keeping pressure off the breasts afterward.

How long does fat transfer breast augmentation last?

Fat transfer breast augmentation lasts for good in the fat that survives: once a parcel of fat takes a blood supply it is living breast tissue, with no device to exchange. The fat that will not survive is absorbed in the first months, so the final volume shows at three to six months; after that it changes only with your weight or a pregnancy.

Who is a good candidate for breast augmentation with fat transfer?

A good candidate for breast augmentation with fat transfer wants about one cup size more with the shape she has and no implant, has enough fat to donate at the abdomen, flanks, hips, back or thighs, is at a stable weight, in good health and without nicotine, and has finished breastfeeding. Dr. Cat examines the breasts and the donor areas before she quotes a transfer.

Can I have breast augmentation without implants if I am thin?

Sometimes, and Dr. Cat tells you at the consultation. Breast augmentation without implants needs enough fat to harvest, and a lean patient with little fat at the waist, hips or thighs often cannot supply a full cup. When there is not enough, implants are the answer she gives, because transferring too little fat disappoints and over-harvesting a lean body leaves dents.

What is recovery like after fat transfer breast augmentation?

Recovery after fat transfer breast augmentation is mostly liposuction recovery: walking within hours, a deep-bruise soreness at the donor areas for a week or two under a compression garment, a desk within one to two weeks, light exercise at about three weeks and full exercise at six. The breasts are swollen and firm at first; the final volume shows at three to six months.

Can fat transfer to the breast be combined with a breast lift?

Yes, as two surgeries. Fat transfer to the breast adds about one cup size but does not move a nipple, so when the nipple sits at or below the fold Dr. Cat performs the breast lift first and the fat grafting several months later, once the lifted breast has settled. The reason is pressure: fat survival depends greatly on the pressure in the tissue it is placed in, and a lift tightens the tissues and creates a lot of pressure, so staging the two gives greater fat survival.

Does fat transfer to the breast affect mammograms?

Fat transfer to the breast can leave small calcifications or oil cysts that show on a mammogram, and a radiologist can usually tell them from suspicious findings when the center knows you have had a transfer, so always say so and give the date. Dr. Cat may ask for a mammogram before surgery, in line with age guidelines, which also gives the radiologist a baseline.

Can I have fat transfer after breast implant removal?

Yes. Fat transfer after breast implant removal restores a modest, natural fullness with your own fat for patients who want their implants out but not all of the volume: about one cup size, no device, no capsule and no exchange schedule. You need enough donor fat, and whether the transfer is done with the removal or staged is decided and quoted at your consultation.

Can I have a Brazilian butt lift and fat transfer to the breasts on the same day?

No. The same harvested fat can go to the breasts or to the buttocks, but Dr. Cat never performs a Brazilian butt lift on the same day as a breast augmentation, with implants or with fat: the recoveries contradict each other and the combined time under anesthesia would be too long. The two are staged on separate surgical days.

Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation in Beverly Hills

Q: How many cup sizes can fat transfer breast augmentation add?

About one cup size from a single fat transfer breast augmentation. The limit is how much fat you have to donate and how much the breast will accept, because fat packed under pressure into dense tissue or tight skin does not survive. The shape stays the same, only fuller; two cup sizes or a round upper pole means an implant.

Breast Augmentation with Fat Transfer in Beverly Hills

Autologous fat grafting to the breast (natural breast augmentation: your own fat, harvested by liposuction and placed in the breast for about one cup size, with no implant) by Dr. Cat Begovic, MD, FACS, board-certified plastic surgeon with two surgical residencies, head and neck surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery, Harvard-educated and UCLA trained

Breast augmentation with fat transfer (autologous fat grafting to the breast, also called natural breast augmentation) adds about one cup size to the breasts using your own fat: it is harvested by liposuction from the abdomen, flanks, hips, back or thighs, washed, and injected into the breast in small amounts, so the breast keeps its own shape, only fuller, with no implant, no capsule and no exchange schedule. It is the augmentation for patients who do not want a device in their body and want a subtle, natural change; a larger or rounder change is an implant. Dr. Cat Begovic performs every step herself at her Rodeo Drive practice in Beverly Hills, from the liposuction to the last injection, one major surgery per surgical day, with a gentle multi-phase liposuction and fat transfer technique she developed for high fat survival.

15-minute Patient Concierge call, no obligation. The consultation with Dr. Cat is $500, credited toward your surgery.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Cat Begovic, MD, FACS

Board-certified plastic surgeon, trained in both head and neck surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery. Harvard-educated, UCLA trained. Updated October 3, 2026

What makes Dr. Cat's breast augmentation with fat transfer different

The decisions behind a breast that is yours, a size fuller, and fat that stays.

Your own fat, harvested by her own handsGentle multi-phase liposuction with thin cannulas through incisions under 4 mm, every stroke hers, no heat devices, so the fat arrives alive.

Fat that staysWashed rather than spun, placed in many small passes at several depths, never overstuffed, because pressure kills fat.

Your shape, fuller, and the truth about the limitAbout one cup size and nothing to exchange. When you want more than fat can give, Dr. Cat says so and recommends an implant.

One major surgery per surgical dayEvery step by Dr. Cat herself, with a physician anesthesiologist in her own QUAD A accredited surgery center.

What is breast augmentation with fat transfer?

Autologous fat grafting to the breast, the medical term for breast augmentation with fat transfer, moves living fat from where you have too much to where you want more. Fat is harvested by liposuction from the abdomen, flanks, hips, back or thighs through incisions of less than 4 millimeters, washed so that only intact fat cells are transferred, and injected into the breast tissue in small amounts at several depths, where each parcel sits close to a blood supply and can survive. The fat that takes becomes part of the breast, feels and moves like the rest of it, and leaves nothing to image, exchange or remove later. Dr. Cat calls it natural breast augmentation, the breast augmentation without implants: your breast, a size fuller.

It is one of two augmentations Dr. Cat performs. The other, breast augmentation with implants, adds a fixed, predictable volume of any size, with the fullness in the upper pole that only an implant gives. Fat transfer adds about one cup size, keeps the shape you have, does not lift a breast that has dropped, and cannot create a round upper pole or take you up several cup sizes; dense breast tissue or very tight skin limits the volume further. Dr. Cat does not combine an implant with a fat transfer in the same augmentation: it is one or the other.

Who is a good candidate for fat transfer breast augmentation?

Three things decide it: enough donor fat, breast tissue and skin that will accept the fat, and the wish for a subtle, natural change. Dr. Cat weighs all three at the consultation.

You may be a good candidate if

You want fuller breasts, about one cup size more, with the shape you have and no implant
You have fat to spare on the abdomen, flanks, hips, back or thighs
Your weight is stable, you are in good health, and you do not use nicotine
Breastfeeding is finished and settled, and no pregnancy is planned in the next year or two

Not yet, or a different plan, if

You want more than about a cup, cleavage in a bra, or fullness high on the chest: that is an implant
You are lean, with little fat at the waist, hips or thighs: Dr. Cat says so rather than transfer too little
Your nipple sits at or below the fold: fat does not lift a breast, so a lift comes first
You are still losing weight, or you smoke and cannot stop for the period Dr. Cat specifies, two months to a year

How many cup sizes can fat transfer add?

About one cup size from a single transfer. The limit is how much fat you have to donate and how much the breast will accept, because fat packed under pressure into dense tissue or tight skin dies; Dr. Cat fills each breast to what the tissue can hold rather than to a number. A patient who wants two cup sizes, a round upper pole or projection from the side is an implant patient, and Dr. Cat says so at the consultation. Our comparison of implants vs fat transfer sets the two side by side. For two breasts that differ by a small amount, fat is a precise tool; our page on uneven breasts explains how Dr. Cat decides.

Who has enough donor fat?

The harvest is half the operation. For most patients it is a lipo 360 of the upper and lower abdomen, the flanks, the hips and the back, which is why the surgeon's fee includes it; the thighs are added when the trunk has too little. Dr. Cat examines every donor area with a pinch test before she quotes a transfer, and when there is not enough to fill both breasts with a margin for the fat that will not survive, she says so, because harvesting a lean body too hard leaves dents. Fat that is not transferred cannot be banked.

How Dr. Cat does it

Dr. Cat is a board-certified plastic surgeon who completed two surgical residencies, one in head and neck surgery, microvascular and facial reconstructive surgery, and advanced training in general plastic and reconstructive surgery, Harvard-educated and UCLA trained. During her UCLA training she co-authored published research on autologous fat transfer in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and in practice she developed a gentle, multi-phase liposuction and fat transfer technique with very high fat survival and few complications.

Step 1: the harvest, gentle multi-phase liposuction

Fat cells torn during a rough harvest do not survive the transfer, so the harvest decides the result. Each area is infused with a numbing solution, and through incisions of less than 4 millimeters she removes the fat with a thin cannula, tumescent and power-assisted, never a laser, Vaser or other heat device: the fat broken into tiny particles, removed evenly with every stroke counted, and a thin cushion left under the skin so the donor areas stay smooth.

Step 2: washing the fat

Harvested fat is a mixture of fat cells, numbing fluid, blood and oil from broken cells. Dr. Cat has it gently washed rather than spun, so that only intact, living fat goes into the breast.

Step 3: placing the fat in the breast

She places a numbing solution in the breasts as well, then injects the washed fat through tiny entry points in many small passes at several depths, so that every parcel sits next to living tissue that can give it a blood supply. She fills to what the tissue can hold and never overstuffs, because pressure kills the graft, and she checks the two sides against each other as she goes, for even, symmetric, natural-looking breasts in proportion to the body she has just contoured. She considers this surgery an art.

Anesthesia, surgery day and the first night

The surgery is performed under general anesthesia with a board-certified physician anesthesiologist in Dr. Cat's QUAD A accredited surgery center on Rodeo Drive; local anesthesia is possible only in the rare case of a single small donor area. It takes three to five hours by the number of areas harvested, one major surgery per surgical day, every step by Dr. Cat herself. A lipo 360 harvest with fat transfer to the breast needs aftercare: the first night is spent in a plastic surgery aftercare center, with nursing care and the garments checked, and you go home the next morning. Only the rare single-donor-area case goes home the same day, which Dr. Cat sets at your consultation.

Dr. Cat on breast augmentation with fat transfer

Combining fat transfer to the breast with other procedures

With a breast lift

Fat adds about one cup size but does not move a nipple. When the nipple sits at or below the fold, a breast lift comes first, and in Dr. Cat's practice a lift with fat transfer (mastopexy with fat grafting) is always two surgeries: the lift first, then the fat grafting several months later. The reason is pressure. How much transferred fat survives depends greatly on the pressure in the tissue it is placed in, and a breast lift tightens the tissues and creates a lot of pressure; staged, once the lifted breast has settled, far more of the fat survives.

After breast implant removal

Patients who want their implants out but not all of the volume often choose fat transfer after breast implant removal: your own fat for a modest, natural fullness. Whether it is done with the explant or staged is decided and quoted at your consultation.

The buttocks, the hips and the face

The same harvested fat can go to the breasts or to the buttocks, but not on the same day: Dr. Cat never performs a Brazilian butt lift on the same day as a breast augmentation, because the recoveries contradict each other and the anesthesia would run too long. Fat transfer to the face, which she also performs, needs only a small amount of fat; whether it fits the same day is decided at the consultation.

Fat transfer breast augmentation recovery, week by week

Recovery is mostly liposuction recovery, with one rule for the breasts: no pressure on them while the fat takes its blood supply.

Surgery dayYou wake numb rather than sore, in a compression garment and a soft bra, and spend the first night in the plastic surgery aftercare center after a lipo 360 harvest, with nursing care. Walking within a few hours, with Tylenol.
Days one to threeDr. Cat sees you the day after surgery. The donor areas feel like a deep bruise; the breasts are swollen, firm and fuller than they will stay. Sleep on your back, with no pressure on the breasts.
One weekSwelling in the donor areas peaks around day three and then falls; most patients are off all pain medication, with minimal bruising at the donor sites.
Two weeksBack at a desk within one to two weeks. Dr. Cat checks the incisions and starts scar treatment; out-of-town patients usually fly home once she has cleared them.
Three to six weeksLight exercise at about three weeks. The garment comes off at six weeks, when full exercise resumes; Dr. Cat advises against lymphatic massage.
Three to six monthsThe fat that was not going to survive has been absorbed and the swelling has gone: the volume you see now is the volume you keep.
One yearThe incisions have faded to almost nothing. The grafted fat is a permanent part of your breast and follows your weight.

How long does fat transfer to the breast last?

The fat that survives lasts for good. Transferred fat arrives without a blood supply; over the first weeks each parcel either connects to the vessels around it and becomes living breast fat, or is absorbed, and the final volume is clear at three to six months. In Dr. Cat's experience more than 80 to 90 percent of the transferred fat survives, which is why her patients rarely need a second round. What remains gains and shrinks with your weight and changes with a pregnancy, so Dr. Cat asks for a stable weight and usually advises a patient planning a pregnancy in the next year or two to wait. A second transfer, for a patient who wants more once the first result is final, is quoted at your consultation.

Mammograms after fat transfer to the breast

Transferred fat can leave small calcifications or oil cysts, and a radiologist can usually tell them from suspicious findings, so tell every mammography center that you have had a fat transfer, with the date. Dr. Cat may ask for a mammogram before surgery, in line with age guidelines.

Fat transfer breast augmentation before and after photos

Look for two things in fat transfer breast augmentation before and after photos: a breast that kept its own shape, a size fuller with a natural slope rather than a round upper pole, and a waist or thighs slimmer in the same frame. The three cases below are Dr. Cat's. Case BAF-2285 wanted a natural increase in size and got a natural shape from her own fat. Case BAF-2292 is a very natural look with more fullness rather than a large increase in size. Case BAF-5321 had 300 cc of fat placed in each breast, for the full shape she asked for. See every angle in the practice's breast augmentation with fat transfer before and after photos; the after photo that counts is at three months or later.

Risks and safety

Breast augmentation with fat transfer carries the risks of liposuction and of fat grafting together, and technique decides most of them.

What can go wrong

Fat that does not survive: more of a graft is absorbed than expected and the volume falls short
Fat necrosis, a firm lump where fat placed in a large deposit died, an oil cyst where fat did not take, or small calcifications on a mammogram
Asymmetry between the two breasts, from uneven placement or uneven survival
At the donor areas: bruising, numbness, a seroma or hematoma, or dents where too much was taken
Infection at an incision, a blood clot in the leg, rare and serious, and anesthesia risks

How Dr. Cat reduces these risks

A gentle multi-phase harvest with thin cannulas and no heat devices, every pass hers, and a cushion of fat left under the skin
Fat washed rather than spun and placed in many small passes at several depths, never in pools and never overstuffed
Filling to what the breast tissue can hold, with the two sides checked against each other during surgery
Careful patient selection: enough donor fat, a stable weight, no nicotine, breastfeeding finished, and medical clearance and lab work
A board-certified physician anesthesiologist in her QUAD A accredited surgery center, one major surgery that day, and follow-up visits through the months the fat settles

How much does breast augmentation with fat transfer cost in Beverly Hills?

Dr. Cat's surgeon's fee for breast augmentation with fat transfer, which includes the lipo 360 harvest, is $56,500 to $63,500; the operating room and anesthesia are quoted at your consultation, because the operating time depends on your anatomy and on what is treated together. Surgeon's fees are typical ranges: a more complex case can cost more, and your fee is set at your consultation and is final only in your written quote. The fee is one figure for the whole surgery, the liposuction of the abdomen, flanks, hips and back and the transfer to both breasts, not a price per area; a second transfer is quoted at your consultation. Every quote is itemized and in writing.

The price reflects one surgeon who performs every stroke of the liposuction and every pass of the transfer herself, one major surgery per surgical day, a physician anesthesiologist and an accredited facility. Please do not shop fat transfer on price: fat harvested roughly or packed under pressure dies or lumps, and correcting dented donor areas costs more than the operation done well. An augmentation with implants costs less, because the transfer is a liposuction of several areas plus the breast work; our breast augmentation cost guide, written for implants, covers what implants cost and the national picture. Fat transfer is cosmetic and not covered by insurance.

Consultation fee and financing

A consultation with Dr. Cat is $500, or $1,500 for a revision consultation, credited in full toward your surgery. Your surgery date is booked once the quote and the pre-op paperwork are signed and the $2,500 deposit is paid, and quotes are valid for six months. The practice partners with Cherry, its primary financing partner, and also accepts CareCredit and Alphaeon Credit; see financing and payment plans.

Your consultation with Dr. Cat

It starts with a free 15-minute discovery call with our Patient Concierge, who books your consultation. Patients come to Dr. Cat for fat transfer breast augmentation from across Los Angeles and from out of town, and out-of-town patients have a private video consultation through OnPatient, the HIPAA-secure patient portal. Bring pictures of breasts you like. Dr. Cat examines your breast tissue and skin, checks where the nipple sits against the fold, pinches every donor area, takes a complete medical history, and tells you plainly whether fat transfer, an implant, a lift first, or nothing yet is the right plan. You leave with an itemized written quote.

Your own shape, a size fuller

I consider breast augmentation with fat transfer to be an art. The fat that is transferred is living tissue, so it is critical to maximize fat survival for the best possible results: I have developed a gentle, multi-phase liposuction and fat transfer technique that has very high fat survival and minimizes complications. I take pride in creating even, symmetric and natural-looking breast augmentation results, and I take the time to sculpt your body in a way that is proportionate and feminine. Bring pictures of breasts you like to your consultation, so I can get a better idea of the look you are hoping to achieve and give you an honest and realistic opinion of what a natural breast augmentation can accomplish.

Dr. Cat Begovic, MD, FACSBoard-certified plastic surgeon, Beverly Hills

Book a free discovery call

Fuller breasts from your own fat, no implant

About one cup size from your own fat, harvested and placed by Dr. Cat herself, one major surgery per surgical day, and a recovery most patients manage with Tylenol. It starts with a free 15-minute discovery call.