Denise Richards has downsized her breasts. So has Victoria Beckham, along with Tara Reid, Sharon Osbourne, and Tamra Barney of "Real Housewives of Orange County."
They join stars Drew Barrymore, Patricia Heaton, and Queen Latifah, who had their breast size reduced in the early 2000s, plus actresses such as Loni Anderson and Roseanne Barr, who had the work done in the 1990s.
Enough stars have reduced their chest size recently that celebrity watchers have declared it a trend, even though other stars from Heidi Montag to Pamela Anderson have chosen to expand their breasts.
Most recently, singer Kelly Osbourne, daughter of Sharon Osbourne, said she hates the size of her breasts and will have them reduced within the next year.
Last spring, formerly large-breasted Romanian tennis star Simona Halep, who won last year's Junior French Open, announced that she planned to downsize. A group on the Facebook social-networking site sprang up to try to dissuade her, but she reportedly went ahead with the breast-reduction surgery during the summer.
Not all plastic surgeons have noticed the trend in their patients. But Dr. John Di Saia of San Clemente has. In his opinion, it's a trend that's related to economics.
"Fewer young people have been in the market than in years prior, probably due to the credit crunch," he said.
The increasing age of plastic-surgery patients is a factor because "older patients tend to opt for smaller implants," he said.
"Overall I find breast implant surgery over the last few years has been more 'repair-related' – for example to replace ruptured implants," Di Saia said. "There were fewer first-time breast augmentations and more implant removals, replacements and lifts. People have been opting for smaller scale (and less expensive) surgery even when the larger operations would have been more productive."
Plastic surgeon Dr. Nicholas R. Nikolov of Beverly Hills also said he has noticed the shift.
"Over the last few years the trend has been towards more modest-size implants for breast augmentations," he said. "Larger breasts are no longer perceived as attractive."
The change is connected in part to the economic downturn, Nikolov said.
"During challenging economic times people are less likely to turn to flashy cars, wear expensive jewelry, or fly private. Just the same, augmentations resulting in conspicuous large breasts are less popular," he said.
But the trend began before the recession, he said: "Moderate-size breasts may make a woman appear more elegant and slimmer. The appearance is more youthful. It also allows greater versatility in what a woman can wear. She can dress up at night and with the help of different bras make them look larger if she wants or go braless in outfits which don't allow for a bra. Sports and workouts are considerably more comfortable with smaller breasts as well."
Here are details of how various celebrities are contributing to this trend:
KELLY OSBOURNE: The singer recently said she plans to have her breast size reduced within the next year, before she marries model Luke Worrall. She hates the current size of her breasts, she said. "I want a size in between a B and C cup that you don't need to wear a bra with," which would be "perfect," she said.
SIMONA HALEP: The tennis player was 17 when she said she planned to have a breast reduction to improve her tennis game. Her cup size was reportedly 34DD
"The breasts make me uncomfortable when I play. It's the weight that troubles me - my ability to react quickly," she said.
"I don't like them in my everyday life either," she said. "I would have gone for surgery too, even if I hadn't been a sportswoman."
Halep's decision to decrease her breast size drew howls of protest from fans of large breasts. A Facebook group "Stop Simona Halep Reducing Her Breasts" signed up 3,070 members. The group claimed members and officers from the United States, most European countries, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and Chile.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Rob Oliver said Halep would need to wait six weeks or more before resuming training and tennis competition so she would allow healing to occur and not risk excessive scarring.
DENISE RICHARDS: The actress has had three sets of implants, beginning as a teenager.
Of her first breast implants, she said, "I was 19, and my roommate had the best boobs ever, and she had just had hers done. … I was flat as a board, and I thought 'Whoa, you can just buy them' and stupidly had them done!"
For her second set of breast implants, her doctor assumed that she would want extra-large ones because she was an actress. "It was not good — they were a D!" she said.
She reportedly had third breast operation – replacing her second set of implants with smaller ones -- after her breakup with husband Charlie Sheen in 2006.
Plastic surgeon Dr. John Di Saia says that's frequently a time when women decide to have their breasts downsized.
She says she's finally happy with her breast size.
SHARON OSBOURNE: Show business personality Sharon Osbourne, mother of singer Kelly Osbourne and wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, recently downsized her large breast implants, which had given her a 34DD bust.
She admits that she tends to overindulge in plastic surgery. She's not kidding. She had a breast reduction, a breast lift, and an enlargement procedure, giving her a set of large breast implants, before she returned to the operating room in 2005 for smaller implants.
She decided to get the smaller implants although her husband liked her breasts as they were.
"Ozzy likes them, but they're too big. Honestly, they weigh a lot," she said.'
TAMRA BARNEY: Reality TV personality Tamra Barney, one of the "Real Housewives of Orange County," had large breast implants replaced with smaller ones in 2007 because the old ones were straining her neck and back.
In the same operation, her plastic surgeon also gave Barney a breast lift to eliminate sagging – a procedure that women often opt for when they reduce the size of their implants.
She said part of the reason she got smaller implants was because of how men looked at her. "I'm tired of the comments. I'm tired of the guys staring at my breasts all the time," she said.
VICTORIA BECKHAM: The singer/designer, formerly known as Posh Spice, reportedly changed her breasts from their original small 34A to a 34D, then to 34DD and now to 34B.
The latest implant reduction was reportedly done for style. An unnamed source, quoted by the British newspaper The Sun on June 17, said, "Victoria has wanted her implants taken out for a while. She felt that was part of her old … image - the big hair, big boobs and fake tan - and that she has moved on since those days."
Di Saia said style wasn't the only factor: "She probably has had her implanted breasts treated for capsular contracture, which involves removing the scar capsule around the implants plus or minus an exchange of those implants. This is a frequent problem with long standing silicone gel implants especially in thin women who smoke."
TARA REID: The breast reduction for actress Tara Reid was a complicated affair – not just a matter of style. She decided to have the work done because she was unhappy with the outcome of a combined breast-implant and liposuction operation in 2004.
Her first plastic surgeon gave her implants that were larger than she wanted, Reid said.
In addition to being upset with the size of her implants, Tara Reid said, "Right after the surgery, I had some bumps along the edges of my nipples, but the doctor said, 'Don't worry, it's going to be better.' But after six months of 'it's going to get better," it started to get worse and worse."
In her second round of surgery, Reid's plastic surgeon also made her breasts more even. Previously, the left breast had been larger than the right one.
DREW BARRYMORE: The former child actress reportedly had her first breast reduction in 1992, at age 16. Photos suggest – and celebrity watchers agree – that she had a second breast reduction in 2006 or 2007.
Her comment: "I've learned something about breasts through my years of pondering and pontificating, and that is: Men love them, and I love that."
