Why do women get breast implants?
This may seem like a very obvious question with a very obvious answer… to get bigger breasts. But it is actually a much deeper and more meaningful question than you might suspect.
The answer also depends on your age and if you are male or female. Let’s start with a woman in her 20′s, pre-children and perhaps pre-significant other. While women who seek breast enhancement and breast implants obviously want to have larger breasts, you might be surprised to know the majority of women are doing this for themselves only because they want to feel more confident and have a balanced body. It is about feeling more comfortable and confident in one’s own body. It isn’t to seek attention for one’s breasts or to flaunt their sexuality (those aren’t bad either,but truly not the primary motive).
As a female plastic surgeon, I truly understand the female body image that runs through a woman’s head starting at a very young age. We seek beauty and balance. We are vain but don’t want to be thought of as vain. We can’t increase the length of our legs (which is what we truly want) so this is the next best thing!
The next group of women are post children, breasts are a little saggy, skin that has some stretch marks, with absolute loss of volume(the breasts may even look like the old Playboy’s cartoon caricatures of grandma’s with extra long bananas for breasts). These women hate their breasts and do not want to be seen naked or in a swimsuit. They feel their breasts are ugly and therefore the rest of their body is ugly. These women don’t want to go out, don’t enjoy shopping for clothes, and don’t feel motivated to eat healthy and stay fit. Can all this result from just your breasts?? Well, yeah, of course! Any woman who has had a really bad hair and skin day will tell you that they don’t want to be seen that day, they don’t feel good about themselves that day, they tend to over eat and subsequently feel worse that day, and they can’t find anything to wear that looks good that day. Just think if this feeling lasted more than just a day, and you had to look at what you felt were awful breasts everyday! A breast lift and a breast augmentation,repositioning the breasts to the chest with volume does wonders for a woman’s outlook and self confidence.
I have learned from my patients and from my own insecurities growing up that my self confidence or “happiness” is often tied into my perception of how good or bad I look. While this may seem very shallow,it really isn’t. Our outside appearance is a projection of our inner self. If we are tidy, “put together”, and well groomed externally, we feel more at peace and there is balance and harmony in our mind and life. If our appearance is disheveled, disorganized and dirty, this is a projection of the chaos within. We feel ”out of control.” Our outward appearance tells the world whether we care about ourselves or not. In my opinion, the women who seek breast enhancement, care about themselves and their appearance and want to take charge of their lives and make the best impression possible with balance, harmony and beauty. And truly we need to be the first person to care about ourselves if we want others to care about us.
These are all good reasons to go forward with any cosmetic surgery… that we care about ourselves. No, this isn’t the most important thing in life and may seem so trivial and superficial to many, but it is about being the best you can be. Life is short and we should go after what it is that makes us more productive, happy, and confident. We can’t change the world all at once but we can start by making ourselves happier and hopefully more productive, thereby starting the ripple that may become a tsunami.