Forget the weird cosmetic things happening in Florida (dentists performing breast augmentations, surgeons putting in used implants, etc.), now a Manhattan gynecologist is jumping on the cosmetic bandwagon. Apparently it’s not enough to do pap smears and deliver babies, the big bucks are in coming up with new cosmetic procedures to market to everyone with a pair.

The vagina appears to be the new frontier for cosmetic medicine.  There’s a whole array of proceduress that the good gyno has designed just for us.  Dr. Romanzi (in a New York Times interview with Natasha Singer) claims that she’s focusing on helping women with bladder issues post-babies, but what it really sounds like is she’s targeting women that will do anything to obtain and retain a man.  The main focus seems to be on strengthening Kegel muscles (like the fancy gyno exam to determine how strong you are), and making the area look pretty.  Am I missing something?

Not all gynecologists have felt the need to explore cosmetics. One doctor even seemed to have his head on straight: “Dr. Berenson questioned whether healthy women need any kind of pelvic strengthening or cosmetic procedure.”  Thank goodness that someone’s out there telling women to leave well enough alone.  Dr. Romanzi’s using face lasers to make the vulva look “better” and she claims that they’re just fine on that area even though there’s no research to support that. So there are a few reasons why other OB/GYN’s are cautious about Phit (Pelvic Health Integrated Techniques) www.theperfectphit.com.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m completely happy just leaving that area alone until some type of medical intervention is deemed necessary…oh, like CANCER, or I’m urinating when I sneeze (I’ve heard that happens, and I’m hoping to avoid)! I’m not even sure that I get “vaginal rejuvenation”. The whole idea of tightening things, makes me think that an inevitable rip, tear, or just plain pain, is in my future.

What about you?  Will you be working “pelvic fitness” into your schedule any time soon?

~Kacey

After a little persuasion from my husband and a few close family members, I finally decided to join Facebook last week.  Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

What I didn’t realize about Facebook before I signed up, was that it is much more then just putting up a profile, uploading pictures and getting back in touch with old friends.  Facebook includes hundreds if not thousands of “applications” that you actually “add” to your page. The applications are anything from adding “the quote of the day” to your page, to adding little “stickers,” various quizzes that you can take to test your knowledge on different subjects, to sending and receiving various “gifts” to and from your friends. The “gifts” include anything from flowers, to little hatching eggs, to drinks, to “karma.”

As I was learning the ins and outs of Facebook over the last two weeks, I was browsing the pages of my friends, and to my surprise and shock, one of my friends had received various “boobies” from her friends. I learned quickly that people are sending each other photos of different breasts and adding the photos straight to their page.  After my shock wore off a bit, I decided to take a closer look at this facebook “application.” In order to do this, I had to add the application to my page. So, I pressed the button to add the application, did my research, and quickly deleted the application before anyone noticed that I added it.  What I found through my five minutes of  research was that there were about 45 different types of “boobies” that you could send and receive. A few of the boobies included the following:

Motivational Boobies

Fake Boobies (though ALL of the boobies were fake, so I really didn’t get that one.)

Sporty Boobies

Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I found this particular application extremely annoying, to say the least. Who, but an immature teenager would think receiving and sending photos of fake breasts is interesting, cool, or “okay” for that matter? Aren’t we inundated with fake breasts ENOUGH? What is this teaching the millions of teenagers that are part of Facebook, that women’s bodies and breasts are just objects? Come on Facebook, you can do better.

US News and World report has an article regarding teens at the age of 18 getting plastic surgery.  This is something that we have all heard before and in some cases, this has been deadly!

The article states  ‘Several factors are important in deciding when and for whom surgery is appropriate: an ability to understand the procedure; that the desire for surgery does not reflect what a parent, friend, or boyfriend desires; and that expectations are realistic’. 

‘If your expectations aren’t realistic and you have low self-esteem or no friends, cosmetic surgery is not the right answer. Rather, I would recommend counseling’.

Personally I think this is good advice for all women no matter what age.  Many women have low self esteem and decide to go under the knife to enhance body parts that they don’t feel comfortable with.  They are also made to believe that what they are doing is safe.    

The article also mentions the FDA guidelines that teens under 22 can only be implanted with saline implants and must be 22 if they want silicone gel.  Something the FDA has decided on that really never made sense to me.  Will 4 years really make a difference???  I doubt not.  Implants do not know your age!  If you are going to have complications, they will happen whether you are 18 or 35 and we have seen that women become ill from both saline implants and silicone gel. 

I would like to add as well that I was 35 when I decided on breast augmentation.  Yes, I had low self esteem and did this because I felt too thin.  I also did my ‘homework’ and found nothing indicating that saline implants were dangerous to your health.  I have since learned that this is not the case at all.  I think the best thing for me would have been counseling and going to the gym to build up those area’s of my body I didn’t feel comfortable with.  No, this would not have increased my breast size but it certainly would have made me feel better about myself.  I think about that often and wondered why no one ever suggested that to me.  Maybe this is what these teens should be doing instead of lipo at age 18.  Really, we need to concentrate more on eating healthy and exercise.  I bet most teens and adults would not need lipo if they changed their diet and excercised on a regular basis. 

It would be nice if parents encouraged their teens to eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis and I don’t mean to a point that it becomes obsessive as this can be a problem as well.  I think that 18 is just too young to be thinking about enhancing your body using cosmetic surgery to achive that.  Also, these parents should also be educated on the dangers and lets not forget to reassure our teens that the body God has given them is perfect and does not need altering in any way.  This will all lead to a healthy outlook in the future and acceptance of their bodies. 

Lastly, I do believe this article makes some good points regarding plastic surgery and teens, I just don’t agree with all of it. 

 Beth

There is a new way to augment breasts that seems quite barbaric. In Europe, women now how the option of skipping implants for the more subtle, natural look of injecting a compound called Macrolane directly into their breasts. It’s called a “boob jab” and I agree with Jezebel, it scares the crap out of me as well. It bothered me so much, that I knew I had to research more. I’m not sure if anyone remembers, but back in the day, Japanese women used to inject themselves with silicone gel… directly. Well low and behold, that didn’t work out very well, which made me wonder what exactly this new injectable compound consists of.

Advocates of Macrolane boast that it is a gel compound made up of nonanimal hyaluronic acid, which is a substance that is already in our bodies. They say it’s similar to Restylane and Juvederm, so of course it’s completely safe (however the website has a disclaimer at the top, “Not intended for US and Canada). Why not us, I thought? Never fear, Macrolane was first used in Japan 3 1/2 years ago (watch out kids, remember my intro) and was injected into over 30,000 women. The procedure takes approximately 45 minutes, uses local anesthesia and injects the Macrolane substance through a knitting-needle sized canula. It’s brutal and fully Europe approved, see below. As a side note, YouTube has banned the original video (I told you it was brutal) I had planned on uploading; this is the new viewer approved version.

 

 YouTube: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Biggest perks: no major surgery required, less volume than implants (avg. volume 80ml-100ml as compared to avg. implant volume 200-300ml), ideal for women that just want to increase bust by one cup size, no recovery time, is “biodegradable” (meaning it breaks down in your body and is supposedly completely eliminated after about 12 months). Something I thought was interesting: one site says, “Macrolane consists of Hyaluronic acid which already exists within your body and thus is not recognized as a foreign substance.” Hmmm…what are they trying to say…that some implanted things ARE recognized as a foreign substance??!! Who would have thought?

Disadvantages: Macrolane costs approximately $4,000 for the initial breast injections, then the price decreases for “top up” treatments. Although the hyaluronic acid may be found naturally in the body, Macroplane is a gel-compound, so what else is in there? I’ve looked and that information is not readily available to the public.

Brighter minds than mine have sought to understand injectable fillers and have basically said that adverse reactions are common amoung injectable fillers and that more information is needed to evaluate potential risk. One study in Berlin looked at injectable fillers. The adverse reactions are more substantial (continuing pain, swelling, nodules, pigmentation, abcess formation, erythema) than the ones reported by Macrolane (redness, swelling, tenderness, pain, bruising or itching).

Dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and maxillofacial surgeons in Berlin were asked to report patients with adverse reactions. Fifty-six patients who had been treated with nine different fillers were assessed. In 48 patients treated with only one filler, 167 areas had been treated. In 129 (77.3%) areas adverse reactions occurred 12.2+/-15.6 (SD) months after injection. Adverse reactions to biodegradable fillers occurred after 4.9+/-5.8 (SD) months, and reactions to nonbiodegradable fillers after 18.3+/-19.0 (SD) months (p=.005). As adverse events, continuing pain, swelling, nodules, pigmentation, abscess formation, and erythema were found.

CONCLUSION: Adverse reactions can be documented for all injectable fillers. Time until reaction as well as type of reaction, however, vary between different fillers. Further research is necessary to evaluate potential risk factors.

Dermatologic Surgery: Official Publication For American Society For Dermatologic Surgery [Et Al.] [Dermatol Surg] 2008 Mar; Vol. 34 (3), pp. 326-35; discussion 335. Date of Electronic Publication: 2007 Dec 20.

Pay attention guys, the next big thing may be coming to a plastic surgeon’s office near you. For now, apparently the US and Canada are safe…but for how long?

However, if you just can’t wait to inject yourself with the newest thing, America, apparently our wonderful surgeons here are happy to perform a “Botox Breast Lift“. For $500 you too can have perky breasts by (get this) relaxing your muscles so you can STAND UP STRAIGHT and make your breasts APPEAR larger. What??? Thank goodness not all surgeons are onboard.

Macrolane and other scary procedures are listed in the Top 10 Cosmetic Procedures You Should Avoid. Read up and steer clear!

~Kacey

Dow Corning Cases = Bogus?! I think not! http://www.scragged.com/articles/i-wuz-robbed.aspx

Read on.. It’s often turned out that the case was bogus from the start: silicone breast-implants are once again available now that the science has proven that they are harmless and that they always were harmless, but that is no consolation to the shareholders and employees of Dow Corning who lost everything when it was driven into bankruptcy by the avalanche of lawsuits.  The settlement with Big Tobacco was supposed to fund programs to help smokers quit smoking; the states have spent the money on everything except curing smokers while the lawyers shop for Learjets.  When was the last time you heard of a big corporate lawsuit with thousands of victims where the victims actually received anything much?  Never.

This article is saying that the people of DOW CORNING were robbed because the implants were always harmless. Wow, people are really clueless to the dangers that are there. How about us women who were robbed and will never be compensated for our loses due to implant illness? Not fair! 

Cosmetic Surgery Today posted a blog today entitled “Safety of Breast Implants Spark Fiery Debate“.  They mentioned a Beauty and the Breast post, which acknowledged that women are often “sold” on the idea of breast implants after visiting a plastic surgeon.  Although I’m thrilled that they are giving attention to the negative side of breast augmentation and asking women to thoroughly research the procedure, I’m not pleased with the site that they linked for research. 

I thought that everyone deserves  to know that there is an independent informational site that is dedicated to truly informing consumers.  It’s not sponsored by plastic surgeons or manufacturers, rather it is a product of a non-profit think tank that is dedicated to analyzing existing research.  If a person wants to know science-based information regarding breast augmentation, then www.breastimplantinfo.org is the place to visit.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s a must read for women, doctors, and the media.

~Kacey

I recently read this blog from Hilary Magazine regarding Karolina Kurkova being too fat!  I really looked at this picture and thought if she was any thinner, she would look anorexic. 

I’m reading words describing her body as ‘fat’, ‘chubby’, ‘love handles’ ‘cellulite’. 

Well, I looked and looked and I sure don’t see anything but a beautiful healthy looking woman.  Our society puts so much pressure on women in particular to look like sticks with big boobs.  Ewww, but that to me is just not attractive. 

Shame on you Brazil for putting so much pressure on women! 

Beth

I found this blog along with a You Tube video today that I thought everyone might find interesting. It is from a board certified plastic surgeon in Orange County by the name of John Di Saia. Dr. Di Saia explains why he does not prefer Silicone Breast Implants. He says

“I do not believe that silicone gel is dangerous per se, but local tissue reactions to silicone gel implants are not the same as with their saline counterparts. I have produced a few short videos to show what happens inside some patients with silicone gel implants over time. We just do not know to what extent this may happen with newer generation silicone gel implants. It has not in my experience happened to the same extent with saline-filled implants. Patients need to make a choice when they choose breast implants. The choice is really deciding on a level of comfort with silicone gel. It is the reason that in my practice many patients still choose saline.”

Here is one of the You Tube videos he is speaking of.

While I find it admirable that Dr. Di Saia is pointing out and admitting to one of the many many problems with silicone breast implants, I don’t believe he is correct in saying that these types of problems won’t happen with the saline implants. When my saline breast implants were removed, I had extensive scar tissue that had formed around my implant. My explanting surgeon had to scrape away the scar tissue which included my own natural breast tissue. Women need to understand that these problems do not just happen with the silicone breast implants, they happen universally with ALL breast implants. This is because the body is trying to protect itself from the foreign object that has invaded it. Saline breast implants are NO DIFFERENT then the silicone implants because the envelope of a saline breast implant is made from the the same materials as a silicone implant.

This article reported in the New York Times states that Plastic Surgeons are holding parties for women interested in any type of cosmetic surgery they desire. 

As quoted in the article:

‘The goal was to create “a fun night, an educational night” that “demystifies” cosmetic surgery, Dr. Greenberg said. In front of the audience, he asked a 28-year-old patient named Jennifer, who later identified herself as his front desk manager and would not disclose her last name, what had bothered her about her breasts and whether the procedure she had undergone to enlarge them had been painful. Meanwhile, Leeana Karlson, co-host of Dr. Greenberg’s show on KJOY radio, 98.3 FM, showed the crowd silicone gel implants like those the surgeon had used”.

I believe the goal of the night is to pull in more women to have cosmetic surgery and to convince them this was all very safe.  I wonder if these women while drinking and eating and socializing have time to even ask what the risks are to such procedures like lipo and breast augmentation? 

Dr. Alan Gold, a Great Neck-based PS and President of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, stated in the article that such events “have moved plastic surgery from an art and science to entertainment.”  Entertainment???  Are these Surgeon’s that hard up for money???  I know our economy is bad so I suppose this is how they are trying to pull more women into getting cosmetic surgery.  Sure, get them drunk and then they will feel like what they are doing is a safe thing to do to their body!

One doctor stated that after years of promotion and advertising, he had “more patients than I could ever want to operate on.” Still, he said, the event would lure new patients that he “may not have had otherwise.”

Point made I suppose after that last statement.  It seems to be all about ‘luring’ women into a false sense of security by have these types of parties.  I’m not against plastic surgery but I am against not informing women of all the risks involved in such procedures that are mentioned in the article. 

Buyer beware!

Beth

Toni Braxton has cancelled all remaining shows in Vegas due to on-going health problems.  These shows were scheduled through the end of August. 

 Photo by Joe Kohen / WireImage

In April, Toni was hospitalized for chest pains and was diagnosed with hypertension and pericarditis, a viral inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart. 

Interestingly enough, Braxton also had to have her implants removed several years ago.  She was reported to have ‘excessive scar tissue’.  Whether her latest health problems are related to the breast implants has been undetermined. 

After helping women for the last 3+ years, I’ve heard many times about similiar problems.  Many women complain of chest pains and heart palpitations following breast augmentation.  Some of these women’s symptoms become so severe, they have to have explant under local anesthesia.  All these women have reported that they did not suffer any of these problems prior to having breast augmentation. 

I hope that Toni can recover quickly and get ‘on with the show’.

Beth