Like many women navigating menopause, Becca says she felt the changes showing up on her face before she felt them anywhere else. “I have a young spirit, but when I looked in the mirror, it didn’t match. The first thing I saw were these jowls and my neck,” she says. “I just wanted to feel like myself again. I didn’t want to look different, I wanted to look refreshed.”
At 57, she had hit that point in menopause where hormone shifts were affecting her skin’s texture and tone. “I was scared to use estrogen cream because I’d previously had cancer, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to rely on hormones. But the sagging, the drooping—I couldn’t just continue down that road.”
A Bigger Plan Than Expected
Rebecca started exploring facial rejuvenation procedures and found Houston facial plastic surgeon Raghu Athre, MD. What she expected to be a simple lower-face fix turned into something more personalized and ultimately more effective.
“Originally I was thinking I’d just do something about the jowls,” she says. “But Dr. Athre looked at my face as a whole and helped me understand what had shifted and where.” In the end, she underwent a deep plane facelift and necklift, upper eyelid surgery, a lip lift and a TCA chemical peel, all under local anesthesia.”
“I had part of my kidney removed just three months before, so I didn’t want to be put under again. Being able to do it all under local made a huge difference.”
The Turnaround Moment
The recovery wasn’t easy. “Those first five days I thought, what have I done? But by day seven, I could see the light. By day 14, I was wearing makeup and going out with friends. People were complimenting me, but no one could tell I’d had surgery.”
She was especially worried about visible scars. “I love wearing my hair up, and I thought those days were over,” she says. “But Dr. Athre placed the incisions so well, you can’t even see them. He did such an amazing job.”
Another concern was the “overdone” look she had seen on others. “We go to a lot of galas, and I didn’t want to be one of those women you look at and know she’s had work. I didn’t want to look windblown or stretched,” she says. “No one’s ever asked me if I had a facelift and that’s the best compliment.”
Even subtle enhancements made a big difference. “I didn’t know this part under my nose had gotten so long with age until Dr. Athre suggested a lip lift. He also added a stitch to balance my bottom lip, which I didn’t expect, but I love. He just knew what would help everything come together.”
Small Tweaks, Big Impact
Dr. Athre says Rebecca’s results are the product of looking at the face holistically. “A lot of patients come in asking about one area, like their neck or jowls, but it’s about how those areas interact,” he explains. “We didn’t just treat a single zone. We made a series of small, strategic refinements that worked together.”
He says the deep plane technique made a difference in the midface and jawline, while the peel addressed skin thinning common in menopause. “When estrogen drops, the skin loses volume and texture. Rebecca’s skin had started to thin, and the peel helped restore its plumpness and tone.”
That approach, seeing aging not as one problem but a collection of changes—is why he often avoids the word facelift. “People think it means pulling everything up and back, but it’s more nuanced than that. It’s facial rejuvenation.”
Feeling Seen Again
For Rebecca, the biggest shift wasn’t just physical—it was emotional. “I went through a period where I felt invisible. And I’m not trying to brag, but when I was younger, I got noticed. That had stopped. Now? People notice me again. I feel cute again. I’m dressing up again. I’m not falling into the cracks.”
She encourages others not to wait too long. “I tell people, do it younger so you can enjoy it longer. I wasn’t trying to turn back the clock. I just wanted to feel like myself again. And now, I do.”
