Davis

Well over 43,000 breast reductions were done last year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. While that number is small in comparison to the nearly 314,000 women who underwent breast augmentation surgery last year, it still represents a significant number of women who improved their quality of life.

Cosmetic breast surgery, an umbrella term that includes augmentation, lifts, and reductions, has long suffered from an image problem. The women who underwent the procedures were often held up as examples of everything that was wrong with plastic surgery during an era when it was stigmatized for its glorification of artificiality and excess.

As the stigma was shed, the perception softened. But it hasn’t completely gone away. Casting judgment ignores the deeply personal and nuanced stories that inspire tens of thousands of women to undergo cosmetic breast surgery each year, many of whom have suffered in silence for much of their lives.

For a moment, envision yourself as a fifth-grade girl who, from the first day of school this year has stopped being called by her name. Instead, you’re known now to classmates and strangers alike as “The Girl with the Big Boobs.” It’s a burden you’ll carry with you through your formative years.

As you enter your mid-twenties and your friends begin to settle down and talk about starting families, your thoughts center on breast reduction surgery. Exhausted by the countless inconveniences, like buying a two-piece bathing suit or doing any kind of cardiovascular exercise, not to mention the crippling lower back pain that’s intensifying by the week, you begin to consult with plastic surgeons.

In time you discover an especially compassionate surgeon who meets your qualifications and understands what you’re looking for and how you’re feeling.  In preparation, you’ll explain that you exercise three to four times a week in spite of waking every morning with back pain. Your posture is terrible, you know that, but sitting up straight is too taxing.

A few months after your surgery, your recovery behind you, you’ll catch yourself in a mirror and realize you love being naked. And almost immediately, it’ll occur to you that you can’t remember ever having felt that. In fact, for as far back as your memory will take you, the only sensation you can remember is that your body doesn’t feel like it belongs to you. But now you know it does.

This story about a ‘mommy makeover’ is likely familiar to you on some level.

Even when she takes into consideration all the ground she’s covered (and respect she’s come to command) through the first 15 years of her career, a woman—let’s name her Grace—considers herself an athlete foremost. She rises at 5 a.m. most mornings to get 10 miles in, and she’s meticulous about her diet.

At 35, she has her first child and gains 40 pounds during the pregnancy, but they come off in mere months postpartum with the help of a jogging stroller. A couple years later, Grace becomes pregnant again. This time, her recovery is far more challenging. A prolonged postnatal hospital stay, which included recovery from a C-section and a series of life-threatening complications, left her depleted.

Even once Grace made it home, caring for her second infant, who nurses constantly, absorbs much more of her time, to the extent that she abandons running.

She still manages to drop 25 pounds in fairly short order, but with her abdominal muscles forced apart, she still appears second-trimester pregnant. With 40 staring back from the horizon, Grace’s previously elastic body wasn’t snapping back into place the way it once had.

The “mommy makeover” is often perceived as an act of vanity, even by many of the women who pursue it.

But for Grace, it was an attempt at empowerment. As she was, Grace was struggling to be the mother she expected to be. Before children, the woman she saw in the mirror was fearless. But Grace, the mother, couldn’t even take her toddlers to the park without persistent anxiety over concealing her body.

To her young kids, everything was new and thrilling. But Grace was too distracted by her fellow moms to indulge in that joy. She felt like a failure because her body had morphed into something completely foreign to her, and she couldn’t seem to get out of her own way as a result.

The mommy makeover isn’t a single surgery that reconstructs the body. Rather, with the help of a board-certified plastic surgeon, a woman can customize a series of operations specific to her needs. Nearly always it includes a breast augmentation and a lift, as well as a tummy tuck, a surgical procedure designed to eliminate the loose skin and excess fat apparent after childbirth.

The mommy makeover is a big undertaking for a woman and, really, her entire family. Recovery from abdominal surgery can’t be rushed, which means finding help with childcare and asking a partner to absorb more than their fair share of domestic duties.

The reward that makes enduring that worth it? Reclaiming yourself, and becoming a fearless, fun mom in the process.

In case you missed it, back in August, Chrissy Teigen had Botox injected into her underarms.

It was notable not because of the procedure—Botox injections are a relatively new treatment for hyperhidrosis, also known as excessive sweating, though it’s becoming fairly commonplace—but because of how the model and entrepreneur very openly broadcast the procedure—literally.

Teigen gave her 26 million Instagram followers a front-row seat to an appointment with her plastic surgeon by posting a live feed of the procedure. “Botoxed my armpits,” she captioned the post. “Truly the best move I have ever made.”

So, how’s it work?

The FDA approved Botox for those, like Teigen, who sweat excessively from their armpits, but it can also be used “off-label” to reduce sweating from the hands, feet, and face.

Normally, when your body temperature rises, your nervous system activates your sweat glands. It’s the body’s natural cooling method. But for someone who suffers from hyperhidrosis, the nerves that send that signal are overactive.

Essentially, Botox works the same way for your armpits as it does for temporarily reducing the appearance of frown lines, forehead wrinkles, and crow’s feet. It paralyzes the muscle where you’re injecting.

The sweat glands in our armpits are surrounded by muscle fibers. When we sweat, the muscle fibers contract and milk the sweat glands. By paralyzing these muscle fibers, you stop the sweating process.

And, how effective is it?

It’s a pretty simple procedure that can be done during an office visit. To begin your journey against hyperhidrosis, you’ll receive several injections. This is done with a fine needle in each armpit that’ll form a sort of grid pattern.

The risk of a potential injury is minimal, but there are a few nerves and large blood vessels that travel from the armpit down to the hands, so it’s important to seek treatment from a board-certified plastic surgeon who has experience with the procedure.

You’ll be able to resume your day as soon as it’s done. There may be some swelling and sensitivity immediately after, but it shouldn’t be anything that would interfere with your normal activities.

Insurance providers usually cover the full cost, but they may ask that you try other options first, like prescription antiperspirant.

It takes between two and seven days to stop sweating in the treated area. And up to two weeks to achieve total dryness. But that dryness will last between four and 14 months (for the armpits).

Just how transformative does it feel to go from uncontrollable sweating to stopping it in its tracks? Just ask Teigen, who wrote, “I can wear silk again without soaking woohoo!”

As body contouring has grown from a buzzword among beauty insiders to big business*, CoolSculpting has emerged as the safest and most effective noninvasive treatment available.

(*One industry analyst projects that noninvasive and minimally-invasive fat reduction procedures will be a $1.1 billion industry by 2022, as patients, increasingly, are prioritizing in-office treatments with minimal downtime over surgical solutions.)

CoolSculpting targets pockets of stubborn fat, the sort resistant to dieting and exercising, and delivers permanent results. Board-certified plastic surgeons can now sculpt and re-contour most areas of the body, especially with the new CoolAdvantage heads that can treat even the smallest of areas.

The most commonly treated spots include the abdomen, “muffin top,” back fat, the bulges that can appear around a bra, and the double chin. (Yes, it’s safe for use around the face.)

Could body contouring work for you, too?

No doubt you’ve read about body contouring before, probably even admired some impressive before/after posts among your Instagram Stories. If you’ve started wondering, Is this something that could work for me? The answer, without getting all infomercial-y about it, is most likely a resounding yes.

CoolSculpting delivers the best results for those of us who eat a healthy diet and exercise on the regular, but who just can’t seem to shed a pinchable amount of subcutaneous fat. It’s also appropriate for curvier patients to reduce fat as part of a weight-loss program, though CoolSculpting itself is not considered a weight-loss procedure.

About the procedure

CoolSculpting is a noninvasive (meaning there are no incisions) and generally comfortable treatment. You may feel a pulling sensation as the applicator goes on. And the cold may be a little unpleasant initially, but the targeted area will become numb after a few minutes.

The treatment time lasts between 35 and 45 minutes per applicator. (You can have more than one area treated at once.) The applicator, which looks like a small box, is placed over the designated spot. It’ll apply a strong suction and freeze the fat cells underneath.

Usually, there’s no downtime at all. You may feel a bit tender and numb in the treated spot for a few days afterward, but it won’t be enough to interfere with your daily life. You can head right back to the office without missing a beat, and even hit the gym after work.

Why it’s so effective

The results won’t be immediately apparent. That will occur gradually. After about eight weeks, most of the improvement should become visible. Depending on the size of the treated area, most patients see the best results with two to three treatments over the course of a three-month period.

The process requires some patience because the affected fat cells are excreted naturally once they’re destroyed. The process, which is known as cryoliposis, cools the fatty tissue and destroys up to 25% of the fat cells in the treated area. And because the body only produces a certain number of fat cells, those particular fat cells are never coming back.

In other words, as long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle, you can expect to never again be plagued by that pocket of stubborn fat.