Sherri Shepherd is opening up about the benefits of undergoing a breast reduction this past summer.
The comedian and talk show host had the surgery on July 13, and she publicly shared about it for the first time on the Season Two premiere of "Sherri" on Sept. 18.
The 56-year-old said, prior to the procedure, the weight of her breasts "became really, really painful," her back was "hurting very badly" and her posture "was slouching all the time because of the weight." But now, she says she is pain free, can "sit up straight" as her baseline posture and feels "lighter."
When sharing the news of her recent surgery, Shepherd recalled a few comments she'd received over the years about her body.
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"It's pretty much been my entire career: I get so many comments about my body and a lot of y'all kept saying, 'Sherri, you too top heavy,'" she said. "And I would get comments like, 'If you just got a boob job, everything would be balanced.
"Now, to be clear, I did not get this boob job because of all of the comments. I got the boob job because I just wanted to see what it felt like to sleep on my stomach," she joked.
She added that she'd worked hard to keep the news private, wearing oversized clothes, bandages and compression garments.
Shepherd shared that she previously wore a bra size of 42DD and explained that it was a hard decision to have the reduction.
"Everybody in my family has big boobs," she said. "It was little bittersweet because I love my old girls. My best friends, I call them. They grew up with me. They have been with me through thick and thin. This was a relationship with the boobs and I didn't care. I loved them."
Shepherd said as she's gotten older, her breasts have gone from hitting her "right up under" her chin in her 20s to becoming a catchall in her 40s and 50s for all the items she drops during the day and forgets about until undressing at night.
"It got to this point where I felt like ... (they) weren't sexual," she said. "They just became practical."
Plus, the physical pain became too much of a burden.
"They were so heavy. I was slouching all the time because of the weight," she said. "It started becoming really, really painful. My back was hurting very badly. I was getting the grooves in my shoulders (from bra straps) because you had to pull up your bra."
She said she "finally" went to her doctor to discuss a reduction. The surgery adjusted the position of her areola, decreased the size of her nipples and reshaped her breasts, she said. She has an "anchor scar" as a result of the surgery, but it's inconsequential to her.
"I feel better," she cheered. "I'm not going to say I wish I had done this a while ago because timing is everything. God gave them to me. They served me well. But now, as I get older, I can sit up straight. I feel lighter. It's easy to shop."
She joked that she's been showing off her new boobs to her friends.
"I look at them everyday, my boobs. I get up everyday and I send pictures of my boobs to everybody," she said.
Shepherd said her insurance company declined to cover the procedure despite seeing her medical documentation.
"This was not a vanity thing. I really needed to have this done because of the pain. But insurance companies are still not covering this for women," she said. And the fact that they won't cover a procedure for a women when it is necessary is a shame." (Some insurances do cover it.)
After ripping into insurance companies that do not cover the surgery, Shepherd ended her remarks on a happy note.
"I love the new girls."
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
