Few psychological concepts have received so much press in recent years as has body image. Thousands of articles, books, and dissertations have been written on the subject in both the popular press and academic literature, provoked in part by the rising rates of eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, and other increasingly risky ways by which Americans strive to alter their bodies. In the past five years
alone, more than one hundred books have been published on the subject of body image.
The endless appeal of anything to do with cosmetic body alterations has encouraged reporters and scholars to ruminate on its implications and the evolution of our cultural norms for the ideal body. Psychologist Nancy Etcoff describes how complex our relationships with our bodies can be. She writes, “We view the body as a temple, a prison, a dwelling for the immortal soul, a tormentor, a garden of earthly delights, a biological envelope, a machine, a home.”
Psychologists know that one’s body image may bear little resemblance to one’s physical reality, and individuals with body image disturbances are not unfamiliar to cosmetic surgeons. Most people have fairly stable core body images that develop in childhood and adolescence and are maintained for long periods.
Psychologically healthy young adults have mature body images, and if they choose to undergo cosmetic interventions, it is usually to change features with which they have been dissatisied since adolescence. With the onset of middle age most people develop a new set of anxieties. Many feel that they cannot compete with a youth-oriented society unless they look younger than their biological age.
Women in partic ular start to feel invisible and their body images blur as the men around them gravitate toward younger, more energetic females. Like skin color, body contours are largely hereditary and can also be strongly associated with cultural identity. Therefore, certain procedures not only profoundly affect a person’s appearance but can carry significant body image and cultural consequences.
Body image is such a powerful psychic force that transformation myths and stories permeate all cultures. Forget about Cinderella: She just got a new hairstyle, fancy clothes, and transportation. How about all of the former and soon-to-be frogs, snakes, fish, and werewolves in fairy tales and adult literature? In many of these tales, transformation is punishment or reward doled out by a powerful force to a mere mortal, perhaps instigated by the human’s behavior or sometimes just for kicks.
The transformations may be reversible but in many cases are permanent or carry the threat of permanence (Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio). Even beyond mythology, serious and comic adult literature such as Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, to name just two well-known examples, is loaded with physical and psychic personal transformation themes.
Outside literature, philosophers have long contemplated whether or not identity is even within one’s control. Certain schools of feminist thought, meanwhile, consider it a cultural imperative for women to redeine themselves within contemporary society. With all of this psychic baggage imbedded in our culture, it is no wonder that the practice of temporary transformation (for example, cosmetics, hair color, new clothes) is so appealing, whereas the idea of permanent transformation is more controversial and loaded with potential psychological dangers.
Breast lift (mastopexy) is an operation in which excessive breast skin is removed and the breast reshaped to look more youthful. In many cases the nipple is repositioned higher on the breast. After mastopexy, breast volume will be slightly reduced unless an implant is inserted. An implant may be recommended to enhance not only breast size but nipple position and breast contour. Mastopexy scars are visible around the nipple-areola complex and may extend down to and within the crease under the breast.
Breast lift is performed with the patient asleep or heavily sedated. Major complications after breast lift surgery without implants are uncommon. Smokers have a higher risk of healing problems. Asymmetries of nipple position and breast shape can occur, as can nipple numbness or poor quality scars. Continued sagging due to gravity always occurs; larger-breasted women and those with inelastic skin will experience recurrent sagging more quickly. Women who become pregnant or experience significant weight change will have permanent alteration of their breast shape.
Patients can expect moderate discomfort, swelling, and bruising for a week or two after surgery and will have some activity restrictions for about four weeks. Breast shape will be irregular and scars will be tight and firm for six months or longer after breast lift surgery.
The bottom line: Breast lift without implants is a relatively low-risk operation but achieves improved breast shape at the price of visible scars. As a general rule the benefits of breast lift last longer in small-breasted women. If implants are to be added, the risks associated with breast augmentation apply, and the disruption of skin blood supply inherent in a mastopexy makes it especially important that the patient avoid requesting excessively large implants.
In breast augmentation (enlargement; also known as augmentation mammaplasty) bags of saline or silicone gel are implanted under the breast (and sometimes also under muscle) in order to make the breasts look larger. Silicone gel implants usually provide a more natural look and feel than does saline, but both kinds of implants are prone to certain problems because they are foreign bodies. For years gel implants were favored by physicians and patients; their use was severely restricted by the FDA for the decade following the early 1990s until further research could be completed, but they are expected back on the broader market soon.
Other effective and safe filler materials have yet to be developed. There continued to be negative press about breast implants throughout the final stages of the testimony that led to the FDA’s recent decision to allow gel implants back on the market. Much of the press was generated by consumer opposition groups; however, when challenged, neither these groups nor the FDA was able to produce any credible, peer-reviewed research demonstrating a correlation between breast implants and systemic diseases such as arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, the most serious charges previously leveled against gel implants.
In a congressional briefing held in May 2005, epidemiologist Dr. Joseph McLaughlin pointed out that no device in the history of the FDA, including heart valves and vascular stents, has ever been subject to a comparable level of review and study.
Breast augmentation surgery is performed with the patient asleep or heavily sedated in an office or ambulatory surgery suite. The incisions are usually small and hidden in discreet locations but do leave visible scars.
Smokers are at higher risk for complications than are nonsmokers. Breast augmentation patients can expect moderate discomfort, swelling, and bruising for a week or two after surgery and will have some activity restrictions for about four weeks.
Final breast size and contour will not be evident for about six months, and because of the unpredictability of the scar that forms around the implants, augmented breasts have the potential to change shape indefinitely. Dissatisfaction with size is very common with breast augmentation patients, and the same patient will at various points feel her breasts are too big or too small.
Breast Augmentation Surgery Risks and Complications
Any operation in which a foreign object is implanted in the body has unique risks associated with presence of the implant. Infection or bleeding around the implant is more likely to lead to additional surgery than would similar complications of operations that do not involve insertion of a foreign body. If an implant has to be removed because of a complication, re-implantation is usually possible after an interval appropriate to the situation. Breast implants are prone to a condition called capsular contracture, which refers to the undesirable hardening of the natural scar that forms around the implant over time.
Capsular contractures can be mild and asymptomatic or they can be severe, causing pain and breast deformity. Severe capsular contractures often require further surgery and even then can recur. Some degree of capsular contracture is a very common event after breast augmentation surgery, although most capsular contractures do not require treatment.
Breast implants can also leak. Leaking saline-filled implants eventually deflate; the saline is safely absorbed and the affected breast looks smaller. The patient may opt to have the leaking implant removed or replaced. For a woman with a leaking silicone gel implant, the presence of free gel usually is not harmful per se, but the implant should always be removed to minimize the possibility of gel migration to other parts of the body.
Future Health Issues that May Affect Post-Augmentation Breasts
Breast implant technology has improved over the years, but even so, no one knows for sure how long a breast implant will last. Women with breast implants should keep a copy of the technical information about their implants for future reference. The presence of breast implants make the performance and interpretation of mammograms (breast x-rays) more difficult, and special
techniques must be used to maximize breast visualization.
A woman at high risk for breast cancer should consider carefully before choosing to have breast augmentation. Subsequent pregnancy may affect augmented breasts in undesirable ways. Breast-feeding is feasible, but if a breast infection develops, the underlying implant may be affected and have to be removed. The forces of gravity and the effects of aging and weight changes will alter the appearance of augmented breasts and not always for the best. Sometimes the breasts drop, but the implants do not.
Other risks associated with breast augmentation include asymmetry (uneven positioning), poor quality scars, nipple numbness (usu-ally but not always temporary), and abnormal breast contour. The last can occur in thin patients in whom the upper border of the implant is visible; in patients in whom the implants are placed under the chest muscles, causing an unnatural deformity of the implant with muscle activity; and, most notoriously, when excessively large implants are inserted. Breast implants can cause pressure-related molding of the underlying rib cage, which can be permanently noticeable in very thin patients who have had their implants removed.
The bottom line: Breast augmentation is by no means a risk-free operation, and a woman should be fully aware of all risks, including the significant potential for symptomatic capsular contracture. The best results are seen in women who choose moderate rather than dramatic enlargement.
Breast surgery carries the same risks as any surgical procedure including:bleeding, infection, pulmonary embolism, anesthesia complications and unexpected complications related to individual procedures. Understand that these risks are no greater for elective breast surgery patients than for patients undergoing any elective surgery.
However breast surgery carries some additional risks. In general, these risks include a temporary or permanent loss of sensation in the breast, asymmetry and risks related to procedural outcomes. A reconstructed breast will never have the same sensation as a natural breast.
Over time and with your own determination, you may experience limited breast sensation. With a breast enlargement, the placement of the implant and pressure it has on breast tissue and nerves can either lessen or heighten nipple sensation. The use of breast implants has the added risk of a condition of constricting excess scar tissue called capsular contracture.
Scars are not a risk of breast surgery but they are to be expected. However how you heal and the formation of irregular scars is a risk that can be carefully controlled in many instances.
But most importantly, know that a breast that does not fully appear or feel natural is a risk you must take when choosing to breast surgery. You will never be able to breast-feed naturally from a reconstructed breast. Following breast reduction, breastlift,or breast augmentation,your ability to breast-feed is variable.
If your future ability to breast feed is an important issue to you, discuss this with your surgeon prior to surgery. It may be in your best interest to postpone surgery. if the gurarantee of breast-feeding naturally is more important to you than your goals for breast surgery.
Breast enlarging pills have long been an attractive alternative to breast augmentation surgery for women. These herbal breast enlargement pills are said to increase breast size because they help to produce estrogen in the body. This helps breasts to get bigger naturally although the effects may only be seen over weeks or months of medication.
Herbs contained in breast pills include herbs like Fenugreek, Dong Quai, L-Tyrosine and Fennel. Do these breast enlarging pills really work or are they just scams by unscrupulous companies out to cheat your money? Seeing that there are no FDA approved breast enlargement pills, one might think that they are dangerous and useless.
A lot depends on which brand of herbal breast pills you purchase. Some of these breast enlarging pills are created with a poor concoction of ingredients and simply do not work to increase your bust size. Not all pills for breast enlargement are made equal as you will soon find out.
While natural breast enlarging pills are made out of herbs, there is no definitive evidence to show that they are 100% safe for each person. Some of the cheap breast enlargement pills do not contain ingredients like progesterone, which is important to counteract the effect of estrogen upon the uterus and prevents uterine cancer.
However, there are thousands of women who have experienced positive results: they did grow bigger breasts naturally by taking the top breast enlargement pills out there. But for every
woman who reports a a growth in breast size, there are others who claim that breast enlarging pills have done absolutely nothing to help them get bigger breasts.
In essence, results will vary according to each woman’s health and body. The only way to find out if breast enlarging pills work is to buy a few bottles and start taking them for at least a month before deciding to discontinue using them or not. This is the only way to confirm if breast enlargement pills really do work or not.
The best breast enlarging pills out there may do wonders for a woman and nothing for another so this is an important point to take note of. In general, some women have claimed to have gotten less than an inch of growth from eating breast enlarging pills. A few rare ones have reported changing an entire cup size (from A to B or B to C) although this are rare cases.
As a natural breast enhancement method, breast enlarging pills offer mixed results. Some users have reported growth in breast sizes but have noted that they tend to lose whatever they gained, which indicates that even the best breast enlargement pills may not offer long term results.
Guidelines for Taking Breast Enlargement Pills
While using breast enlarging pills you should carefully follow the instructions given in order to maximize its effects. Take a good amount of protein everyday and eat less carbohydrates in order to help you better absorb the nutrients from the herbal breast enlargement pills.
Follow the dosage recommended religiously and do not stop taking the breast enlarging pills unless you experience severe discomfort. After taking the pills for a month, measure your breasts and take note of any growth.
If you see no results, this particular breast enlargement pill may not work for you. You should then drop the pills entirely and perhaps try a different brand or
type of breast enlarging pills.
The best advice I can offer you is that breast enlarging pills work for some people and not for others. A lot depends on one’s physiology and reactiveness to herbs. The only way to find out is to try them. If you’re interested in natural breast enhancement, give herbal breast pills a chance. They might work for you or they might not. Good luck!
Yes, there are ways to get bigger breasts without surgery. Methods include natural breast enlargement pills, natural breast enlargement exercises as well as creams and breast pumps that claim to be able to help make breasts bigger without surgery.
If plastic surgery is not an option, these natural breast enlargement techniques are the only way you can get bigger breasts naturally. Learning what makes breasts bigger is the first step before you decide on any particular method.
Your breast size is determined by the volume of fat tissues, glandular tissue and the mass of the pectoral muscle behind it. As the breast is largely made up of adipose tissue, its size will
change over time especially when a girl grows during puberty or when she enters pregnancy. Weight gain or loss will also affect the size of your breast.
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