Ladies, Would You Do It? Have You Done It?

[kat]

Thanks for the valuable tip, but I have no interest, and I hope, no need.

[sbk]

Breast augmentation is not an issue with me either

I've always been curious about women who get the fillers and botox more than radical surgical procedures.

Lipo scares the heck out of me (anyone read Skin Tight by Carl Hiassen?) but having had a minor procedure on my nose when I was young (I had a bone spur growing up into my sinus cavity) and found it to be well, painful, even smaller procedures are not really in my plan. A lift would be nice, because gravity does get you down () no matter how much you take care of the girls, especially for those of us who are bit more buxom. But again, there is the pain issue. I am a wimp I am also, how shall we say, thrifty? And find the expense not worth the result, at least at this time of my life.

But, it is as Kat says, women are judged by their looks both personally and professionally. Unfair it may be, but that is the reality.

[RueFang]

Ok, so I'm 30...and childless! I'm really not judging people who do it, like I said, do what you need to...just saying I thought it stemed from a lack of self esteem.

Boo, I'll have to disagree with you regarding being on a par with make up and hair...there's always a risk of disfiguration from surgery..at least if the hairdresser disfigures you, you only have to wait a few months for your hair to grow back I wear sunblock as a skin cancer preventative rather than an anti-ager agent. Completely agree with the extra screening needed for people who are obviously addicted to surgery though.

So, I'll get back to you in a few years when I'm loosing the fight with gravity and popped a few kids out (although gravity seems to be tugging at me already!)

[leisurely]

I would love to have surgery to correct my gigantic baps, remove my beer gut and laser skin resurfacing. As I can live with my breasticals, could stop drinking beer and excersise more the first two don't matter. I would really love to have my face sorted out though. I have that horrid freckly thing that comes from too much hormone during pregnancy and being in the sun and horrendous acne scars. I'll have to live with it though I think. Each to their own I say with surgery as long as no one is being hurt, coerced or suffering (children from lack of food etc.)

[thaibebop]

Breast augmentation is not an issue with me either

I've always been curious about women who get the fillers and botox more than radical surgical procedures.

Lipo scares the heck out of me (anyone read Skin Tight by Carl Hiassen?) but having had a minor procedure on my nose when I was young (I had a bone spur growing up into my sinus cavity) and found it to be well, painful, even smaller procedures are not really in my plan. A lift would be nice, because gravity does get you down () no matter how much you take care of the girls, especially for those of us who are bit more buxom. But again, there is the pain issue. I am a wimp I am also, how shall we say, thrifty? And find the expense not worth the result, at least at this time of my life.

But, it is as Kat says, women are judged by their looks both personally and professionally. Unfair it may be, but that is the reality.

I would men are as well. This makes me wonder what the differences are between such judgments. I could start a thread but maybe it would tie into this. I have met men who underwent plastic surgery to make muscles look bigger or have more definition, like the famed six pack. I would call the hair replacement surgery to be along the lines of plastic or perhaps cosmetic surgery.

[donna]

sit in the plastic surgery centre of Bumrungrad for an hour or so and you will see PLENTY of men in there. from what i saw, they were mainly in for eye surgery (bags removed etc).

[Andiamo]

Hi Andiamo:

I saw a dermatologist at Yanhee, who lasered off a mole, and two freckles. He did an excellent job. I don't remember his name, but his door is at the far left when you sit down in front of the dermatology unit there. I think they are probably all good, but I was referred to him, because I think he is the laser expert.

Andiamo:

I'm sorry - his door is at the far RIGHT when sitting down facing the dermo unit. Phew - what am I smoking today?

Hey Kat,

No probs whatever you were smoking! Thanks for the info Sounds like you left there floating anyway!

[Andiamo]

I would consider it. In fact I will def have some kind of boob lift in the future as having a baby has really done damage to my lady lumps.

I always joke with my girlfriends that if I was running for president right now, I would make heavily-subsidized tummy tucks and boob lifts a mandate

*(post pregnancy that is; As for the rest - go to the gym like the rest of us).

You know I'm sure I heard somewhere (for the life of me cannot remember where, maybe a conversation with a French person..!), that in France, women can have tummy tucks post-preganancy on the French equivalent of the NHS (National Health Service) i.e. for free!!!!!

(Personne me confirmez?) Can anybody confirm? Not sure if we have any French ladies/men who may be au fait with this?

I second Boo calling "Kat for President"

[kat]

However, there is something nice about a full, voluptuous body

...of a lady is appreciated by (non vegetarian) REAL men!

Thanks Dr. Naam .....

[kat]

You know I'm sure I heard somewhere (for the life of me cannot remember where, maybe a conversation with a French person..!), that in France, women can have tummy tucks post-preganancy on the French equivalent of the NHS (National Health Service) i.e. for free!!!!!

(Personne me confirmez?) Can anybody confirm? Not sure if we have any French ladies/men who may be au fait with this?

I second Boo calling "Kat for President"

I tell you, now France - that's civilization

Thanks Boo and Andiamo. Maybe since I'm now officially unemployed, I'll have a shot

[LadyinRed]

Kat for President!

[Head Snake]

Just an FYI.

My sweetheart went to her village/hometown. Feeling bad about picking up some weight, she chose to get fat removal (and possibily breast enhancement) performed. She did this on the spur of the moment this weekend. No plans as far as I was aware.

I knew something was wrong as she typically calls and smses. I left plenty of smses to check on her and wish her the best.

She just wrote that she went back to the hospital because she lost alot of blood and had to have a transfusion. She hopes to get out by tomorrow.

SHe's just happy to be alive.

1) If you do it, go to the right doctors.

2) You don't need it. There are risks.

Edited October 23, 2007 by Head Snake

[kat]

I wish your sweetie all the best. That is a cautionary tale and I'm glad the cost of learning was not too steep.

When she recovers, there are excellent ways to get in shape via diet and exercise.

*but diet as in nutrition, not crazy diet pills or teas.

Edited October 23, 2007 by kat

[kat]

Kat for President!

Hey Red! Longtime no speak. Thanks for the vote of confidence

[Head Snake]

I wish your sweetie all the best. That is a cautionary tale and I'm glad the cost of learning was not too steep.

When she recovers, there are excellent ways to get in shape via diet and exercise.

*but diet as in nutrition, not crazy diet pills or teas.

Thanks. I think there is a lesson here, too.

SHe is a very pretty girl and i didn't care that she had gained weight. I'd never seen her "heavy" before but I sure she could have lost the weight over time.

I was gone on a golf weekend and I lost some weight. I think maybe she wanted to show me how much she could lose by shortcutting.

I also blame her girlfriend talk network. I think she and her friends had been talking up a storm on girl issues. I think she felt some pressure. That is just my spidey senses.

SHe had told me she took diet pills before. Hummm. Then she got off them and gained weight. now this.

I think I need to have a heart to heart with her.

[sbk]

thanks for sharing your experience head snake, I am sure it was a wakeup call for both of you. Too bad it required something like this to happen tho

It goes to highlight the importance of doing it for the right reasons and with the proper research!

Diet and exercise don't always work, especially as we age. But it sounds like she needs to hear from you how much you love her just the way she is. Doesn't get said enough by anyone IMO.

[kat]

I challenge you on that, SBK. I believe that diet and exercise does work, especially as we age. You need to go online, and do research of elderly people who started a rigorous exercise and weight training program. The results are miraculous. But, it takes a lot of work and commitment.

[sbk]

Depends on the health and metabolism of the person involved, IME.

[Head Snake]

Just an update: My Tirak was finally able to talk yesterday albiet still in pain. She plans to return home today (maybe too soon - I don't know).

Her reason to do it: She gained weight and looked pregnant. We even did 2 pregancy tests on her and they were negative but anybody who saw her always asked her if she was pregnant. I also kept joking about it to her. Oops. So, she was embarassed and self conscience. She wanted to be skinny again.... and fast.

Her surgery: fat reduction and tightening "down there". They give 20% discount to do 2 operations at one time. I don't think she did any research of the hospital and doctor. Just did it. Sold land, got money, and in she goes.

What is it with stubbornness? Why did she have to feel she needed tightening? She had children I understand that. Would I have preferred enhanced breasts - thats what I thought her surprise for me was. now we can't do nothing for 2 months. Merry FN Christmas!! hehe I don't like that!!

2 months

Jeezus!!

Anyway she says she will tell any woman who asks about the operation to not do it. She feels lucky to be alive. She says she should have just gone to the gym and done it right to lose weight.

The Tightening? I think that will be worthless as we talked about having a child in the future.

Basically, 4 days she could not do anything due to pain and medication.

Money she could have used for a car or a scooter she wanted.

Now she has a blood transfusion too - any surprises there??

She'll still be sore for awhile and we'll have to watch her closely

Even though I will talk to her, I feel like I wouldn't know if some day she just checks herself in for breast enhancement. Something she had talked about before.

[Sheryl]

Up to the individual of couyrse, but I personally have done/am doing all I can to avoid looking my age, and not ashamed to admit it:

-- Botox regulalry

-- a face lift 2 years ago and will repeat when and if necessary

-- a bit of filler into lines the botox doesn't get

Why? For the very simple reason that I feel younger when I look younger. And when I feel younger, I act younger (more active), and acting younger helps me stay younger and more fit. yeah, I know it's a sort of psychological game but it's true. Whenever I've been unable to get my botox on time and start seeing an older looking face in the mirror I start moving more slowly and feeling my aching back, feeling generally tired etc. As soon as the Botox kicks in I'm stepping lively again.

And the face lift most definitely has made me think of myself as a younger person and act accordingly. (In a good way I mean, like physically more ac tive, not in a silly way). As far as I'm concerned was worth every penny.

But of course, it's up to the individual. Some people feel fine looking older and it doesn't slow them down. And some people have chronic helath conditions (such as diabetes) which would make any surgical intervention more risky than for the average person.

I do think, though, that if one is going to go for this stuff one should make sure to have a very well qualified person do it and not look for bargains. Better not done at all than done badly. And listen if any surgeon advises against what you want either on grounds of risk or that it won't give a good aesthetic result. There was a famous show business personality about 20 years ago (I won't mention name as this info came to me confidentially) who died because she insisted, against the advice of many plastic surgeons, on having plastic surgery despite being a severe diabetic. She just keopt shopping around til she found someone willing to do it...and paid the ultimate price for that folly.

Oh and as long as I'm feeling frank...besides the anti-old stuff I had liposuction on my tummy more than 20 years ago because even at my ideal weight and exercising I, like many people, had an accumulation of fat on the belly and I just did not like it! Very pleased with the results which continue to this day. An unexpected side effect was a comparatively larger yet totally natural bust. Since breasts are essentially fat tissue and the fat has to go somewhere..with proportionately less of it piling up on the stomach, proportionately more on the boobs.

I do dislike very much the unnatural appearance some face lifts give (you know, the tightly stretched skin and absurdly arched eyebrows) and also the "basketball" fake boobs which are becoming so common that people are starting to forget what the normal contour and consistency of breasts are....but then easy for me to say as nature gave me an ample chest. if I were flat chested maybe I'd take a different view of things.

[sbk]

Now that is the kind of post I was looking for, someone who has actually been there and how they feel about it, thanks for your honesty Sheryl

I also appreciate Head Snake's post regarding his girlfriend, a good reminder for all of us as to the reasons why we should or should not go into these things. I am glad to hear she is alright but I understand your concern --hopefully she has learned a painful if valuable lesson.

[Head Snake]

Up to the individual of couyrse, but I personally have done/am doing all I can to avoid looking my age, and not ashamed to admit it:

Oh and as long as I'm feeling frank...besides the anti-old stuff I had liposuction on my tummy more than 20 years ago because even at my ideal weight and exercising I, like many people, had an accumulation of fat on the belly and I just did not like it! Very pleased with the results which continue to this day. An unexpected side effect was a comparatively larger yet totally natural bust. Since breasts are essentially fat tissue and the fat has to go somewhere..with proportionately less of it piling up on the stomach, proportionately more on the boobs.

Personally, I don't think any surgery is bad either so long as results make you happy and done correctly.

I am interested in hearing that your fat stayed off the belly long term. wow. When I read up on liposuction, they didn't know if fat would grow back in the area or not - inconclusive. Why was I looking at liposuction? my back, my back surgery. I wasn't doing any exercise and things were piling up in the belly area.

Anyways, For men, would I get my ass back?? do you think?? Can I get rid of the love handles?? What do you think??

I know this is a ladies forum. But, who here has done the lasik? That kinda scares me.

[Head Snake]

Now that is the kind of post I was looking for, someone who has actually been there and how they feel about it, thanks for your honesty Sheryl

I also appreciate Head Snake's post regarding his girlfriend, a good reminder for all of us as to the reasons why we should or should not go into these things. I am glad to hear she is alright but I understand your concern --hopefully she has learned a painful if valuable lesson.

sbk, the gf is getting her spunk back. She feels lots better after getting some food and some sort of "feel good" injection. I get the feeling after a couple of weeks she'll likely say she was being over dramatic. That's my impression now.

We'll see in a couple of weeks.

[sbk]

HS, a friend of mine did Lasik about a year and a half ago and is very happy with the results, of course, he did it in Germany not here, but I think with an experienced qualified doctor it could be worth it. Something I will definitely look into if (or rather when ) my eyesight goes as I cannot tolerate glasses for long periods of time. Plus when I work in the garden and sweat they would just slide off my face anyway.

[elfe]

haven't done it, will never do.

fyi for each of your botox injections animals have to die gruesome

[Sheryl]

Oh, Elfe, you've ruined my day..in fact potentially ruined my middle and old age!!!!!

In what way is botox developed by hurting animals????

HS: lipo removes fat cells. The distribution of one's fat cells is genetically determined. The fat cells that remain will continue to gain and lose fat according to how much you eat, but you will have permanently less proportional fat distribution in the areas liposuctioned.

So in my case, at normal weight I have a flat tummy. If I get overweight, I'll start to have a fat stom ach but by that point the rest of me is already fat too. Whereas pre-lipo I had a bit of a belly even at normal weight.

It works well for localized fat deposits to get a more aesthetically pleasing distribution of fat cells. But you'll always have some fat cells remaining and the remaining ones will increase in size the more you feed them.

Love handles respond well to lipo and provided you maintain a normal weight, won't come back. At excess weight they'll be there but less prominently than they would have been at same weight pre-lipo.

Buttocks are more complicated since large area of fat and you obviously wouldn't remove all, just some. Trick would be getting what is remioved equitably distributed and risk would be a smaller but unevenly contoured butt. In case of belly and love handles they just target the whole and go for flat.

I had lasik done, here in Thaioland, fabulous results. About 7-8 years back, at TRSC with Dr. Eketet. if you do a search oin the Health forum you'll find lots of discussions of lasik in Thailand.

[elfe]

Oh, Elfe, you've ruined my day..in fact potentially ruined my middle and old age!!!!!

In what way is botox developed by hurting animals????

sorry for that.

botox is a toxin (botulinumtoxin), it is the strongest toxin known! one million stronger that zyankali.

it is derived from bacteria and cannot be produced artificially. that's why each charge can differ in its poisoncontent and each unit has to be tested with animal testing.

the toxin is injected in the belly of mice, it produces cramps, suffocation and paralysis, the agony can last up to 4 days. the aim is to find the ld50, the lethal dose with wich 50% of the animals die.

in 2005 7375 rodents had to die in the name of beauty mania.

there are 5 released products on the market: dysport, xeomin, neurobloc, botok, vistabel. because these go under 'medication' they can still be produced, as animal testing for cosmetics has been prohibited.

[Head Snake]

Oh, Elfe, you've ruined my day..in fact potentially ruined my middle and old age!!!!!

In what way is botox developed by hurting animals????

HS: lipo removes fat cells. The distribution of one's fat cells is genetically determined. The fat cells that remain will continue to gain and lose fat according to how much you eat, but you will have permanently less proportional fat distribution in the areas liposuctioned.

So in my case, at normal weight I have a flat tummy. If I get overweight, I'll start to have a fat stom ach but by that point the rest of me is already fat too. Whereas pre-lipo I had a bit of a belly even at normal weight.

It works well for localized fat deposits to get a more aesthetically pleasing distribution of fat cells. But you'll always have some fat cells remaining and the remaining ones will increase in size the more you feed them.

Love handles respond well to lipo and provided you maintain a normal weight, won't come back. At excess weight they'll be there but less prominently than they would have been at same weight pre-lipo.

Buttocks are more complicated since large area of fat and you obviously wouldn't remove all, just some. Trick would be getting what is remioved equitably distributed and risk would be a smaller but unevenly contoured butt. In case of belly and love handles they just target the whole and go for flat.

I had lasik done, here in Thaioland, fabulous results. About 7-8 years back, at TRSC with Dr. Eketet. if you do a search oin the Health forum you'll find lots of discussions of lasik in Thailand.

Thanks for all the info. There is always somebody on any board that has phenomenal input. I think you are the one for this forum's health issues.

My gf showed up this morning - very radiant and beautiful. SHe is very happy. THe pain and bleeding was likely a choice on how she had the procedures done - the liposcution was done from insertions in the vaginal area. Lots of area to bypass to get the 2 instruments (scooper and sucker) to the belly. THen they did the vaginal repair. So, you know where she hurts.

50k baht for the belly fat reduction, 25 kbaht additional for the repair.

We talked. She knows in 2 weeks after the pain is gone, she will sing a more rosier tune.

She had done her homework and the doctor/hospital are reputable in the local area; just not well known to medical tourists. I was happy she had done her homework. She also had relatives to take care of her - that's another issue. Have someone there to make sure they keep tabs of you particularly after the procedure.

We looked at recent video before her operation. There is a big difference in her outward radiance. She is happier.

SHe mentions concerns about the money spent. I told her if she feels good about it, be happy. I think that helped her too. She didn't want to spend money frivolously.

Today she gets back to work and I know she will kick some ass.

I can't wait for 2 months to pass

[Sheryl]

Oh, Elfe, you've ruined my day..in fact potentially ruined my middle and old age!!!!!

In what way is botox developed by hurting animals????

sorry for that.

botox is a toxin (botulinumtoxin), it is the strongest toxin known! one million stronger that zyankali.

it is derived from bacteria and cannot be produced artificially. that's why each charge can differ in its poisoncontent and each unit has to be tested with animal testing.

the toxin is injected in the belly of mice, it produces cramps, suffocation and paralysis, the agony can last up to 4 days. the aim is to find the ld50, the lethal dose with wich 50% of the animals die.

in 2005 7375 rodents had to die in the name of beauty mania.

there are 5 released products on the market: dysport, xeomin, neurobloc, botok, vistabel. because these go under 'medication' they can still be produced, as animal testing for cosmetics has been prohibited.

Thankls for that bad news. I did a web search and see that there are campaigns underway to get the companies that produce botox to use other methods of testing and apparently there are alternatives that could be used. Anyone interested see www.hsus.org/amimals_in_research

The testing is per batch of botox and one batch equals many injections so not quite the case that each injection one dead animal but that's splitting hairs I know, and certainly agree that it is a abhorrent practice. And will sign the online petition, write manufacturers etc. But stop getting the Botox......? Don't think I can, but will now feel guilty each time I do . (Does being vegetarian help offset things at all?).

Which leads me to my main point, which is to warn all you ladies that Botox has to be repeated several times a year and once you've seen the difference (if you had it done by someone good) you'll be hooked for life and unable to face the idea of going back to your old face. To the tune of 10-20K baht 2-3 times a year....

I gather the fillers are not animal tested, tho.