Bum Lift Surgery

A bum lift, also called a buttock lift or gluteal lift, is surgery to remove loose, sagging skin from the buttocks and tighten what remains. The surgeon removes a crescent of skin and underlying tissue from the upper buttock, then lifts and re-drapes the remaining tissue to sit higher and flatter against the body.

Many patients come to a bum lift after major weight loss, where skin has been stretched over years and no longer retracts. Exercise can build the muscle underneath, but it cannot tighten skin that has lost its elasticity. Only surgery removes it.

A bum lift takes tissue away. A Brazilian Butt Lift adds it.

A bum lift is for loose, sagging skin, usually after weight loss or with age. The surgeon removes a crescent of excess skin and fat from the upper buttock and lifts what remains, so the buttock sits higher, firmer and smoother. It does not make the buttock bigger; if anything, slightly smaller.

A Brazilian Butt Lift is for the opposite problem, a buttock that is flat or small but where the skin itself is still firm. It uses liposuction to harvest your own fat and transfers it to build volume and projection. It cannot remove loose skin.

Not sure which you need? Stand in front of a mirror and lift the skin of your buttock with your hand. If lifting it improves the shape, the issue is loose skin and a bum lift is the procedure. If the skin is firm and the shape is simply flat, you want a BBL. It’s a rough guide, the decision is confirmed at consultation, and some patients need both.

In the UK, this buttock lift procedure can cost £8,000. Europe Surgery can offer a bum lift from £3,750. Find out more about our cosmetic surgery prices.

Bum lift surgery takes between two and five hours depending on how much tissue is removed and whether it is combined with other procedures. The surgeon marks the incision while you are standing, since skin position changes when lying down. The incision runs horizontally across the upper buttock, positioned so it sits below the waistband of underwear. A crescent-shaped section of skin and underlying fat is removed; the remaining tissue is lifted and secured, and the incision is closed in layers.

Liposuction is often used alongside it to refine the contour of the flanks and outer thighs, so the lifted buttock sits in proportion with the surrounding shape.

Europe Surgery does not offer buttock implants, and that is a deliberate clinical decision rather than a gap in what we provide.

A 2023 systematic review comparing 524 implant procedures with 1,788 fat grafting procedures found an overall complication rate of 25% for gluteal implants against 13% for fat transfer, roughly double. Wound separation along the incision occurred in 9.16% of implant cases, and implants being visible or palpable through the skin in 5.92%.

Implants also sit in a part of the body that takes constant pressure from sitting, which is why revision and removal rates are higher than for implants elsewhere. Where a patient wants more volume, we use their own fat instead. Where the issue is loose skin, a bum lift addresses it directly.