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A recent landmark study has highlighted the fact that many women undergoing cosmetic surgery have very little idea about what to expect from their procedure nor the associated risks. Unlike plastic surgery, which is performed to repair damage, cosmetic surgery is not necessary, rather it is a voluntary choice by the patient the majority of which are women. In Australia, anyone with a medical degree can perform cosmetic surgery from injections such as Botox to quite invasive procedures and currently there is no requirement to be a for the doctor performing the procedure to be a qualified surgeon.

The Australian study by health sociologist Rhian Parker from The Australian National University, has written Women, Doctors and Cosmetic Surgery: Negotiating the ‘normal’ body. Dr Parker interviewed 32 Australian women

Cosmetic Surgery

that had undergone a cosmetic procedure and 19 medical practitioners performing the procedures. From the interviews, it emerged that there are 3 reasons that women choose to undergo cosmetic surgery:

1. A body feature they have been bothered about for a long time e.g. small breast size or a large nose
2. Changes that have happened over time or due to an event e.g. a stretched stomach after childbirth
3. Aging – women perceiving they look older than they feel

When approaching Doctors about cosmetic surgery, the study revealed that women generally don’t know what the surgery entails and therefore they don’t know what questions to ask. Many women are also embarrassed by their choice to undergo surgery and so keep it a secret thereby missing out on emotional and practical support throughout the process. Ironically, the research has also shown that Doctors are not understanding why women are there. Dr Parker noted that previous research identified that men prefer larger breasts than women. In Australia we have a situation where most of the Doctors performing cosmetic procedures are men and most of the patients are women and so unfortunately the end result is that there are now lots of women with larger implants than they originally wanted, for example, a women goes in asking for a C-cup and comes out with a D-cup. And so now in their perception instead of standing out because they have small breasts, they stand out because their breast are large. In most cases, women don’t want to look like movie stars or like another person, they want to look like better versions of themselves.

Dr Parker says there are wide ranging implications from the study. The first issue is that we need to actually find out how many women are undergoing cosmetic procedures annually as currently there is no way of tracking this information. Secondly, she identified the need for industry-wide quality control measures to be put in place. Also, and very importantly, that there needs to be unbiased education and information available to women undergoing cosmetic surgery procedures so they know how to make good choices and what questions to ask before they have a procedure. Finally a comprehensive list of complaints needs to be gathered Australia-wide so that the magnitude of the issues associated with these kinds of procedures can be identified.

Anecdotally there is a strong rumor that one of the reasons for increased medical insurance premiums across the board is due to the high number of complaints from dissatisfied patients following cosmetic surgery. Essentially the lack of regulation, lack of education and secrecy surrounding this industry is costing the entire medical industry dearly from a financial perspective and costing the women involved from an emotional perspective.

See an interview with Dr Parker.

Editor’s note: I found this study fascinating and alarming. I would love to know what you think, both about the study and about cosmetic procedures in general.