Children's Health
Most Women Do Not Tell Their Children About Pending Surgery
By
Apr 28, 2008 - 6:26:53 PM

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Cincinnati, OH -- Contrary to the message of “My Beautiful Mommy,” a book publishing today designed to help children better understand a parent’s decision to undergo plastic surgery, full disclosure is not the norm.

Dr. Jean Loftus, author of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Plastic Surgery (McGraw-Hill), finds in her practice that the vast majority of women undergoing cosmetic plastic surgery choose not to tell their children about their plans in advance.

There are several reasons to avoid a full disclosure:

“Parents feel their kids are too young to understand. By the time they are old enough to understand, they are usually teenagers who, instead of being supportive of a parent's decision to have cosmetic surgery, are extremely critical. Teenagers often equate a parent's choice of improving a physical feature with an effort to attract the opposite sex...and teenagers want to think about their parents having sex just about as much as parents want to think of their teenagers as having sex.”

*”Parents do not want to promote cosmetic surgery in the minds of their children. They fear that doing so will drive their children to become more self-critical and pursue cosmetic surgery for themselves at a much earlier age than the parents.”

Loftus comments, “For the very few parents who have a desire of complete disclosure with their young children, perhaps this book may be useful. But I think that those women represent an extreme minority. Many of my patients are women with young children and do not wish to explain fully their choice of cosmetic surgery, so they ask my advice. I usually recommend one or a combination of the following explanations:

1. I am having (have had) female surgery (which is true and which accounts for recovery time);

2. I have gained weight (as in the case of breast augmentation)

3. I have lost weight (as in the case of tummy tuck)

4. I have had corrective surgery (such as in the case of rhinoplasty).”


The Smart Woman’s Guide to Plastic Surgery
Jean M. Loftus, M.D.
Certified Board of Plastic Surgeons
Second Edition, McGraw-Hill
Original PB, $18.95
ISBN 0071494197

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