Diastasis recti, the right time to take action
When is the right time to intervene in the case of diastasis recti?
Let's take a look at some of the recommended or ill-advised timelines
Post-pregnancy diastasis, no need for surgery in the immediate postpartum period
The postpartum period is a transitional period during which there is a return to basal conditions from a physical and hormonal point of view.
The tissues adjacent to the diastasis, in the months following delivery regain adequate 'consistency and the abdominal muscles as a whole regain tone and functionality.
Interventions too close to childbirth are therefore to be avoided because they can lead to rushed work on tissues that are not fully ready.
Therefore, the best period for any reconstructive surgery on diastasis recti is quite distant from childbirth; in our standards we wait at least eight months for the first evaluation and a year for any surgery.
Thus, surgery can be performed on stabilized tissues and starting from an aesthetic and functional framework beyond which spontaneous improvement is not possible.
Be wary of those who advertise early surgeries; in addition to working on unstable tissue, the end result will not be well quantifiable because of the natural flattening that would have occurred postpartum anyway.
Finally, it must be considered that with the natural recovery of muscle tone, the subject can also accept living with small diastasis, willingly avoiding surgery.
Diastasis per se is never an urgent condition, and the surgeon's act, to be right, should not overlap with nature but possibly come last.
Diastasis and overweight, you can intervene only after losing weight
If you are overweight, you should in no way intervene on the diastasis recti until the proper weight loss has occurred.
This is a very important concept and a basic safety rule.
Overweight hinders the closure of diastasis and the successful outcome of surgery for a volumetric-compartmental fact, especially when the proportion of visceral adiposity is particularly represented.
It is absolutely necessary to reach a healthy weight and to give guarantees that weight loss will be maintained over the long term in order to cope with a diastasis closure surgery.
It also happens all too often, however, that some patients are unwilling to lose weight and do not understand its importance as a function of reconstruction for diastasis recti. In that case, the surgery is simply not to be done.
Professional athletes
Wheightlifters, bodybuilders, fitness professionals, etc... can develop diastasis recti from continuous and excessive physical loading, often being individuals who, due to work demands, must adhere to scheduled workouts and predetermined dates for competitions and contests.
In these cases, however, special care must be taken to plan the timing to meet the necessary expected postoperative recovery.
Be wary of those who advertise surgeries with unrealistically short convalescence; biological healing times are well-defined and cannot be modulated at will.
