As women with PIP implants continue to be terrified by reports of increased rupture risk and exposure to possibly toxic substances, Newsnight this week covered the story, with a guest appearance from boob job expert Katie Price.
The show also featured a panel of ladies who have had PIP implants, who were invited to add their four-penneth on how the government and NHS should be handling them. The issues of how to get speedy access to scans and who should foot the bill for removal and replacement of the implants is getting lots of folk in a tizzy — and, understandably, the women walking around with mattress-filler in their chests are somewhat keen for debate to be replaced by decisive action ASAP.
I feel for these women, they must be worried sick. Their dream come true is turning into their worst nightmare. I hope this is all resolved quickly, preferably with private clinics stepping up to take responsibility and replace these implants with safer alternatives.
But, I couldn’t help be struck by the reasons some of the women on Newsnight gave for having their implants and the seeming unanimous desire to have the implants replaced rather than removed altogether. As Price sanely interjected, there are risks with all surgical procedures and all implants are subject to a lifespan, after which they have to be removed. Their quest to improve their breasts with implants was always subject to risk — but this is something they were willing to do to improve their body confidence and the way they look in clothes.
I heard repeated use of phrases like “I didn’t feel like a woman” and references to the distress caused to women by the state of their breasts after breastfeeding children. One woman said it had nothing to do with vanity, but she felt compelled to have implants to “feel better”, after her self-esteem reached rock bottom.
I’m not unsympathetic to body image worries at all, or crushing hang-ups about post-baby boob deflation. I’ve experienced all of this to some degree — and I know that, for some, the feelings of self-loathing or inadequacy can be overwhelming. You can’t just “snap out of it”. And it may seem as if physical change roots out “the problem” and makes everything alright again.
But I do ask myself if surgery is the answer. Could it be that “the problem” has more to do with the mind than the body? Personally, I believe that psychological help would be more relevant, at least as a first base. Decreased anxiety and improved self-esteem, achievable through therapy, might be a better way of approaching these problems than going under the knife.
That’s my view, what’s yours?
Thank you for the post which is interesting and informative. The clincher for me is the closing paragraph which sums up how I feel. I know several people who have had cosmetic surgery. They all say they feel better and are happier to be photographed but they do not seem any more confident in relationships and still display the same low self esteem. I really feel its about changing stereotypes and accepting who we are and our imperfections
Thanks Babs for your comment. Interesting that your experience backs up the idea that surgery may be a drastic and ineffective measure to take if the real problem lies with self-esteem. I’m sure there are women who have surgery who are very confident to start with… but I do worry that, for others, having breast implants may not deliver the hoped-for confidence. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Great post – I’m not against surgery, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who wasn’t totally sure. Women think they’ll have surgery and look amazing but they forget that there will be scars that fade but never go away, so if anyone gets very up close and personal they’re going to notice you’ve had surgery! So if you worry about what other people think, this isn’t the best thing to do, only get them if they’re to make YOU happy and you’d rather have scars than small boobs
Yea it’s a difficult decision, I can’t be against women who decide to have it done as I can understand their body issues.
I’m with you and this is the point of view of someone who’s been there. I had the so called post-baby deflation, I felt devastated as I was very young and all my friends had full and perky boobs.
I got the damn implants, not even pips and experienced all sorts of things such as capsular contracture, constant pain, couldn’t hug people properly, sleep on my tummy.. To be honest, in clothes or in pictures they may look nice and attractive but a closer look makes you self-conscious enough, fake boobs look like…fake boobs!
I am shocked that we women go through surgery and so much suffering in an attempt to look better or to feel more attractive. I ended up getting rid of mine and that was the best thing I ever did in my life. The thing that strikes me the most is that after all that I rung the surgeon to get hold of my pre-surgery pictures and surprise: I see very beautiful natural breasts there, not perfect, but still, nothing wrong with them, I was even more surprised that I got back to my pre-sugery look and I am very happy for it, which many doctors say won’t happen, that the skin will have streched, etc. So you are right, the problem is in our head, in the distorted way we see ourselves and our body parts.
This makes me wonder about myself. I was a shy teenager, grew into a young adult that had a fascination with lingerie and bras in general. I felt like I would enjoy clothing and fashion more with larger breasts. I was 20 when I had my surgury.
I didn’t think too much about it. I just had tunnel vision until it was over. A couple years later I look back and can’t believe I had the guts to go under the knife. But! I don’t regret it. I haven’t thought much about my boobs since. I think it was just like having one less thing to feel shy about from time to time. I was a little shy before, and I’m still a little shy now. But I certainly think about my appearance less. Could that have been me maturing and obsessing less in general? Perhaps.
spot on. a close friend of mine just got implants. I was very shocked because I never thought of her as vain. Her reason was that she didn’t do if for anyone but herself, she wanted to feel more like a woman in bed. I couldn’t help but wonder, who told her she needed bigger boobs to be womanly during sex? the porn, I mean pg-13, movies? At some point in time, each of us have been ‘told’ what a woman ‘should’ look like. judging by how popular implants are, a lot of women are duped by a lie. A woman’s self worth is more than the size or shape of her breasts. It’s unfortunate that our culture doesn’t support that. And quite frankly, fake boobs look and feel fake. I don’t understand how anyone can see that as attractive.
and in case anybody cares, my perspective is coming from an originally small chested woman who’s gone even smaller chested after 3 babies. And I have several women close to me who’ve had implants (reasons varying from vanity and husband’s request to reconstructive after a double mastectomy). After hearing of their medical experiences, I would never throw away my natural beauty for what they’ve supposedly gained.
Hi Catherine, I’m very against implants. Because it is the only kind of surgery that takes a healthy body and makes it less healthy. It gets everything backwards. It says that the small breast is unhealthy/damaged and needs to be “fixed” when in actuality it was perfect all along.