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

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

Teen plastic surgery is hitting the news again.  And it’s not surprising given the statistics.

 The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reports that 87,600 surgical operations were performed on 13-19 year olds in 2007, mostly for breast reduction in young males and nose reshaping. The teen surgeries represent 5 percent of overall procedures.

In an article picked up by Reuters, one doctor is trying to find a publisher for his book on teen surgery, and he isn’t finding any takers.  A voice of reason (psychologist) steps in and basically says that we should be trying to encourage self-esteem building from the inside not the outside, while acknowledging that extreme cases may very well need medical intervention.

In the article it mentions that the doctor has given a breast lift to a child that “had breasts that sagged like a 60 year old”, and who consequently started acting out and developed an eating disorder.  After her breast lift, reportedly the eating disorder disappeared.  But before this comment it says:

“But he says surgery has made a profound difference to his patients, even in the controversial area of breast implants which are generally discouraged by the ASPS for the under-18s.”

Apparently breast lifts aren’t all he’s willing to perform on teens.  And I’m guessing those teens that ended up with breast implants courtesy of the nice doctor, now report a higher self-esteem?  Job well done, right?  Let’s give those teens what they want for the moment, in the moment.  And while we’re at it, let’s throw in a free pair for mom and make it a family affair; afterall, she’s the one who went to all the trouble of bringing the child in in the first place.  Isn’t it nice when parents make the sale and you don’t have to?

Thank goodness my mom thought that I was fine just the way I was (when I told her I was getting breast implants at 19); too bad I didn’t.

 ~Kacey

“I am a research engineer that works primarily with materials. PVC is used because it is the cheapest durable plastic, and its properties can be customized with additives. Not only is PVC harmful, the additives are harmful too (if not worse). For women and mothers everywhere, pay close attention to the use of PVC in anything that touches you or your child, especially when it comes to baby’s toys and sex toys. Visit wikipedia for a very thorough discussion on this plastic.”  ~Mr. Engineer

Mr. Engineer,  

Thank you for your comments. I thought your insightful post needed to be the focus of our next discussion.  I seemingly meet people with priviledged information all of the time. While vacationing one year, I met a researcher who had found a connection between hair dye and cancer. When their research was really starting to make strides, she said the FDA came in, collected everything, and said they’ll be taking over the study…and then she never heard anything more of it. She said that this was typical when researchers find something that could cause a lot of concern and the FDA gets wind of it. By the way, from what she said, it might be a good idea to avoid every color but brown.

Another time, a doctor of mine mentioned that during his residency, he was helping with a study on artificial sweeteners and their effect on rats. He said that every one of the rats got cancer during the study, and that they were instructed to surgically remove the cancer, and then the rats were considered “cancer-free”. Nevermind that they all got cancer from the sweeteners, with the cancer removed they could pretend it never happened. ***Did you know that in breast implant studies, often times the women that remove their implants (for whatever reason) are automatically dropped from from the study altogether?  Now I’m sure the public would be curious to know WHY they removed their implants (personal choice, health problems, capsular contracture, rupture, etc.).  That’s information that would be HELPFUL to a study, I would think.

These are just examples of a small amount of the information I’ve been exposed to by the professionals that have been involved with research. I wish we could all know what is really going on, from the people who see it happening every day. The best tool we have in this day and age is the Internet, as free-speech can truly prevail and companies are not able to stop our messages (or at least for the most part).

Thanks again for giving us a heads up. I encourage others to do the same, as we should all help each other to be as safe and healthy as possible. You’d think the FDA was looking out for us (they can barely keep up with produce by the way), but that’s just something we tell ourselves at night to help us sleep better.

Any other things we should look out for, readers?

~Kacey

Something deeply disturbing happened this week, and I need your input. I’m having trouble even figuring out where to begin. Recently my class of pre-teens/teens was instructed on hygiene: how to keep clean, what shampoo and conditioner are for, importance of brushing teeth, etc. It was a great presentation and the kids were totally into it and seemed to have a good handle on how to take care of themselves. Well, knowing what to do and doing it are completely different things, as we would come to find out.

The hygiene lesson stemmed from the need of a female student in particular…okay, frankly it was a hair intervention, the kind your friends or parents usually perform, long before middle school. The girl comes to school every day with a mop of hair on her head that looks like it has never seen a day with a comb. It looks as if it’s been teased to the point that it’s angry and looking for revenge.

Our bright idea was to see if she would want to volunteer for a hair makeover, which she happily did. At first we considered taming the frizz/curls/clumps with water and hair gel (while teaching her to twist and let dry). We didn’t want to make the furr ball bigger, so we opted for using a straightener instead. We were all set to start the process and learned that underneath the top layer of unbrushed but manageable strands there were not 1 but 2 layers of matted clumps. I have never quite seen anything like it. At first glance it was overwhelming, but then it just kind of made us angry, as this young girl needed someone to walk her through self-care and she obviously wasn’t getting what she needs.

While working on the tangles, the girl was questioned about when she washed her hair last… and she couldn’t remember! It had been so long that she had no idea when her hair had last touched soap; according to the mess we find, it was absolutely believable. The finished product looked great! She had beautifully straightened hair (which was still quite bushy and therefore we taught her how to secure it with a ponytail holder) and she was beaming from ear to ear. Her hair had grown several inches just in the detangling process alone. She left my class feeling on top of the world, and I later learned that all of the adults (and kids) were singing her praises, which she responded well to. The big test would come the next day, when we would see what she would do with her new tangle-free locks.

Things might have gone differently had I not opened my big mouth during the makeover. I made the mistake of saying, “When you straighten your hair, sometimes you can get by with not washing it for 2 days or so.” I thought this would be a good thing, as I was encouraging everyone by saying you won’t have to spend this much time on it every day, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew it was a mistake. When I saw her the next day, I noticed that for the most part, her hair was back to its crazy self. It wasn’t quite as bad, but it still wasn’t good. The worst part of it was that now it had tons of gel in it that needed to be desparately washed out… and soon! When I talked to someone else about this, they reassured me by saying, “No, the gel is a good thing… at least it smells nice.”

Next year, we have made plans to do a thorough hair intervention, complete with shampooing guidance and everything. But I can’t help but think… will it stick? Has anyone else had experience with this, and what can I do to help this little one out?

~Kacey

As most of us have already heard, on May 12, 2008, China suffered a devastating earthquake. When these types of disasters hit, it always seems to be the ordinary people that turn out to be the biggest heroes of all. Police officer, Jiang Xiaojuan, mother to a 6 month old son became “China’s heroic Mother.” When Jiang was called into duty what she found was babies crying in hunger. Jiang’s instincts kicked in and she breastfed babies that had been separated from their mother’s who had been orphaned by the quake, at one point breastfeeding 9 babies. See the post on BlogHer about it here.

Many have been making comments about Jiang’s selfless and beautiful act. Jiang herself says “I am breastfeeding, so I can feed babies. I didn’t think of it much, it is a mother’s reaction and a basic duty as a police officer to help.”

It is stories like these of this selfless mother that remind us not only of the power of human kindness, but also how important breastfeeding can be in an emergency or natural disaster.

When I made the decision to get breast implants, I thought it was a personal one. I thought it was a choice I could make on my own because I was the only person the surgery would affect. I could never have known that the decision I made at 19, would negatively impact the life of my mother, my father, and all of my siblings, friends, and future husband. Who would have thought???

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and it started me thinking about everything that my mom has done for me over the years. When I was a baby and couldn’t take care of myself, she was there. Slowly she taught me how to care for myself and others, and helped me to pursue my dreams. When it was time for college, I thought I had reached a new place in my relationship with my mother. The old times of her taking care of my physical needs had completely passed and I was to be independent from now on. The next time someone would need help physcially should have been my mother, when she’s around 80. Imagine my complete shock when just 2 years after leaving home, I was back and needing more physical help than I ever could have dreamed possible.

My mom was against the idea of my getting breast implants. She thought it was rediculous and completely out of character for me, but I was 19, and she knew I would make my own decision. After a few months of getting my implants, I started experiencing sharp pains in my arms that would come and go. I mentioned this to my mother, and she immediately thought the implants could be to blame. I remember getting angry that she would even consider it because I knew it couldn’t be possible. I had the procedure done by an excellent plastic surgeon and I was naive enough to think that nothing bad could happen because the FDA gave the saline breast implants their stamp of approval. 100% safe, at least in my mind anyway.

Slowly I began seeing things her way. Symptom after new symptom appeared. Doctor after doctor told us that implants were safe, and they would try their hand at a pill or something else they thought was sure to stop my joint pain. Nothing helped and I got to the point where my joints, bones, and muscles were on fire and I could barely get out of bed.

Thankfully, I graduated college, as it was a life-long dream of mine, and with a diploma, I knew I could die happy. And that’s just what I saw in my future…nothing….I didn’t think I’d make it long enough to have one. My mom stayed by my side the entire time, making sure I had bites of food small enough to try and chew, rubbing “old people” lotion all over my muscles and joints so I could get up and take a shower, and talking with me because that’s about all I was still capable of at the time. I wouldn’t leave the house for weeks because it hurt too badly to walk. Today I was thinking about the times when I did have a little energy to spare and I would ask to tag along when my mom needed to go grocery shopping. You wouldn’t think this is much, but it took me so long to walk a step or two, I know I slowed her down immensely. She never talked about what an inconvenience my bi-weekly or more doctors appointments were, or that she had 7 other children (all younger than myself) that needed her. What’s even more, she never made me feel bad about choosing to get the breast implants that she didn’t want for me, and that ended up almost killing me and making me such an extra burden on my family.  My mom wished someone would have told us of the dangers of breast implants, and so she encouraged me when I was given the opportunity to share my story through an MTV documentary.  She accompanied me on many flights to New York and took care of me so that I could share my story with the world.  Without her, I would not have been able to do any of this.

 After having my implants removed, I started feeling better immediately.  My joint and muscle pain lessened about 40% just with the explant surgery alone!  I started trying things that would get tiny remnants of silicone out of my body (the shell from the implants) and slowly got better.  I finally found a rheumatologist that was human, and she talked me through Rheumatoid Arthritis and found the right drugs to stop my joint damage (at the time I could not move one of my arms to my head, I could barely walk because of foot pain, etc.).  And now 4 years after having my implants removed and giving myself injections and chemo once a week, my RA is officially in remission.  This means that my blood tests are perfectly normal and that my body is not currently attacking itself and causing inflammation.  I was so excited to call my mom and tell her the good news a few weeks ago.  I tell her how much better I feel, but now she can see concrete proof that I’ll be okay.

 So you see, breast implants ended up affecting my life and the life of everyone that loved me, then and in the years to come.  I never thought I’d end up with Rheumatoid Arthritis, a disease that is always with you and can rear it’s ugly head at any time.  I have permanent joint damage as the disease hit me so quickly and help didn’t arrive in time.  I never thought I’d have to move back in with my parents or become disabled at the age of 20.  I never thought that my entire life might be focused around getting and keeping medical insurance so I can pay for the very medicines that may end up giving me horrible side effects in the future.  I was 19 and I just decided to get breast implants.  

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  Thanks for hanging in there.

 ~Kacey

You would have to wonder….just how long is it going to take until the perfect little girl figures out that mom seemed a lot happier once she had her surgery to become beautiful? And how long will it be before the little one wants a surgery of her very own. Plastic surgery job insurance or just a self-esteem crushing bed-time story?

~Kacey

Taking a Kid’s-Eye View Of Cosmetic Surgery
Plastic Surgeon Turns Author to Explain ‘Mommy Makeovers’

By Sandra G. Boodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 22, 2008; HE05

The hardcover book by board-certified plastic surgeon Michael A.
Salzhauer, published by Big Tent Books and available for purchase
online, seeks to answer the insistent questions posed by some young
children: Why is Mommy’s nose smaller? Where did her tummy go? And
what’s with all those bandages?

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said Diana Zuckerman,
president of the nonprofit National Research Center for Women and
Families, after reading “My Beautiful Mommy.”

“This is disturbing on so many levels,” she added. “For one thing, it
perpetuates a completely unrealistic ideal” of female beauty: the
large-breasted, wasp-waisted, midriff-baring Barbie-doll look.
Zuckerman, who says she is not opposed to all plastic surgery, notes
that the book’s portrayal of postoperative recovery seems remarkably
short: The mother is up and around soon after her tummy tuck, which in
real life can require a much longer recuperation.

“And I’m sure there’s a good reason the mother had to wear skin-tight
pants and a crop top,” Zuckerman added, “but I don’t know what it is.”

Salzhauer does. “Mothers, at least those in South Florida, do look and
dress like that,” said the 36-year-old physician who hosts a Sunday
morning radio call-in show called “Nip Talk Radio.”

“Being a doctor, I can’t deal with the political or philosophical
arguments” surrounding cosmetic surgery, Salzhauer said. “I have to
deal with reality.” The book, he said, gives parents “a vehicle to
explain the plastic surgery process to their kids” who may be too
young to understand why a parent is choosing to undergo an
appearance-altering operation.

The bulk of his practice, Salzhauer said, consists of women between 20
and 40 undergoing what he calls “mommy makeovers”: breast implants,
breast lifts and tummy tucks.

Salzhauer said his interest in children’s reactions to cosmetic
surgery was sparked by questions his daughter, who was then 4, asked
when he underwent a nose job several years ago. As the father of four
young children, Salzhauer said, “I read a lot of children’s books” and
realized there was no book for 4- to 7-year-olds that could explain
why a parent who wasn’t sick was having an operation.

Many of his patients, he added, bring their children to plastic
surgery consultations and even postoperative appointments.

Zuckerman questioned why the mother in the book has just a small
bandage on her perky new nose, not the black eyes that typically
follow rhinoplasty, and why she’s up and around a few days after her
tummy tuck, not lying in bed in a haze of pain waiting for her next
Percocet.

Then there’s the appearance of plastic surgeon “Dr. Michael,” who
looks like Superman. “It wasn’t my idea,” said Salzhauer, who said it
was the illustrator’s concept. “Of course, that’s how I see myself
when I look in the mirror.”

Ten percent of the proceeds from the book, he said, will be earmarked
for children’s plastic surgery charities. A Spanish-language version
is also available; Salzhauer hopes it will appeal to patients in Latin
America, where cosmetic medicine is also popular.