avatarMona Lazar

Summary

A woman reflects on her decision not to get breast implants after witnessing her friend's painful and emotionally distressing experience post-surgery, despite societal pressures and the growing market for breast augmentation.

Abstract

The article discusses the author's personal contemplation on breast augmentation, influenced by her friend's agonizing post-surgical experience. The friend, despite enduring significant physical and emotional pain, including fluid-filled breasts, constant manual drainage, and a bruised chest area, still desires larger breasts. The author, on the other hand, chose not to proceed with the surgery after reading an article by a renowned surgeon advising against it unless one deeply dislikes their breasts or expects a significant improvement in life quality. The author concludes that the potential complications, societal messages, and the understanding that her life would not be significantly improved by larger breasts led her to opt out of the procedure.

Opinions

  • The author believes that society places undue importance on physical appearance, particularly on enhanced body parts like abs, butts, and breasts.
  • The friend's decision to get breast implants is portrayed as a pursuit of self-esteem enhancement, which unfortunately did not yield the desired emotional satisfaction.
  • The article suggests that the beauty industry promotes painful procedures as normal, including those that involve significant risk and self-mutilation.
  • The author emphasizes that the decision to undergo cosmetic surgery should be based on a thorough consideration of the potential risks, long-term side effects, and the true desire for change, not just societal pressures.
  • The author implies that cosmetic procedures send a message to the world and can significantly alter how others perceive and interact with an individual.
  • The article concludes with a personal reflection that preference should not be confused with necessity, and that one should be content with their natural appearance to avoid unnecessary risks associated with cosmetic surgery.

My Friend Got Breast Implants and Her Agonizing Experience Scared Me off Them Forever

Do you have small breasts?

Photo by Igor Starkov on Unsplash

Are you a woman with small breasts?

Then you must have thought at least once about getting breast implants.

Maybe you thought about it as a must-have, or maybe as something you’d never do. But you did think about it. It’s inevitable.

According to Grand View Research,

The global breast implants market size was valued at USD 2.17 billion in 2021 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% during the forecast period. Growing preference for enhancing physical appearance has led to the growth of the market globally.

We live in a superficial and cynical world, there is no doubt about it. Constantly bombarded with images of abs made up of neatly aligned tight little squares, prominent butts rounded to perfection in the gym or the surgeon’s office, and bouncing juicy breasts that seem excellently trimmed by the scalpel of Jesus himself, it makes you wonder: where do I fit in in this anatomically enhanced world?

We measure our worth by first impressions, body size, and attractiveness factor. We all do it, with no exceptions. But only some of us admit to it.

My friend admitted to it. Actually, she admitted to it so hard that she decided to get her breasts and self-esteem enhanced.

And guess what? It worked. For the breasts. The gap in her self-esteem is still there. Now she wants them bigger. Rounder. More visible.

Despite going through hell after the surgery, she is still willing to go under the knife again, only half a year after she took a trip to hell and back, with a detour through Boobland.

Photo by Dainis Graveris on Unsplash

The surgery was immensely painful, despite the massive amounts of painkillers. After the procedure the breasts filled with fluid that the medical staff had to drain manually every other hour. An ordeal that gave her many nightmares in the months to follow. The entire chest area was one massive bruise. The pain was unbearable. She kept saying again and again ‘why did I do this to myself, I went under the knife with no health reason, I shouldn’t have done it…’. It was heartbreaking to watch her going through such emotional and physical pain.

We had gone together to get our breasts checked and ask about breast enhancements. But I decided to opt out and she decided to opt-in. I opted out after reading an article by a renowned surgeon who said: if you don’t absolutely hate your breasts, don’t cut them open.

His article made me understand that I don’t hate my breasts. Not their shape, not their existence, not even their size. I would have wanted them bigger, but not enough to do that to them and myself.

He also said that if you don’t feel that your life is going to be at least 50% improved from this procedure, don’t do it.

It was the perspective that I needed to understand that having bigger breasts would have made 0 positive difference in my life.

It would not have improved my life on either a physical or emotional level. However, it would have made a negative difference in my life, because:

  • the possible complications could be severe
  • having pouches filled with silicone inside your body can lead to a plethora of auto-immune conditions
  • for a long time, or maybe even forever, you can’t do activities you love, such as sleeping on your belly or getting a massage
  • your breasts might be highly sensitive to the touch or completely numb
  • you attract a lot of unwanted attention from dubious individuals (aka sleazy men)
  • it sends a clear signal that you are willing to mutilate yourself

Whether we like it or not, cutting off your breasts to shove silicone prostheses inside them is not a beauty procedure in any sense of the word. It’s self-mutilation.

We all know that most beauty procedures are painful.

  • putting on acrylic nails burns
  • the antiseptic substance used to sterilize cuticles after styling stings
  • waxing is literally pulling the hair out from the roots
  • shaving your unwanted hair with a blade will result in folliculitis
  • dying your hair chemically burns the scalp
  • straightening and curling it involves hot irons
  • even the least invasive anti-aging procedures, such as botox or hyaluronic acid fillers are still invasive, in the sense that somebody is invading your skin. With a needle.
  • even working out hurts!
Photo by Junior Moran on Unsplash

Basically, everything that has to do with changing the body into a more pleasing shape hurts.

So the question that remains is — where do we draw the line?

Some people don’t draw any lines. They go all in and modify as much as they want to. Some say no to boob jobs, others say no to penis enhancements. Some say no to everything and judge the ones that choose a different route.

I broke it down into 3 questions that helped me and can help anybody else make the right decision:

  1. Do you want it bad enough and in what ways will it significantly change your life? Is the current situation making you so miserable that you absolutely need to go under the knife? Are you sure it’s because of your body being a certain way? Or could it be something completely different and changing the body won’t change the problem?
  2. What are the long-term possible side effects? Are you willing to pay that price? And the answers are not allowed to include avoidant answers like ‘just because it happens sometimes, it’s not going to happen to me.’ Assume it’s going to happen to you and see if you can say yes to it.
  3. Are you ok with the message you are sending the world? If you get very big breasts, will you be ok with a lot of sexual attention? If you get your face tattooed, are you willing to accept you’ll never get a job in banking? Society is what it is and you need to know a different body will influence the way others interact with you.

Whatever your decision is going to be, make sure it’s what you truly want. If I hadn’t found the article of that surgeon that showed me things from a different perspective, I would have decided to go through a difficult surgery, with a lot of downsides, for something that I didn’t really want.

What changed is only the perspective. Sure, I’d still like bigger breasts. But it’s just a preference, not a must. It doesn’t bother me that they are not big. I wouldn’t feel better if they were bigger, I might even feel worse if I had some complications. They would serve no purpose in my life. They would just be a useless ordeal. On the same note, I’d also like to have blue eyes, but I’m not willing to cut those open either.

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