Fw: Subject Reference: Along with the diploma, a new set of breasts

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Awesome article in case it hasn’t been presented yet! I may be behind, and this may be a repost! I didnt know Dr Kolb was an Air force doc! how cool! Very powerful

Subject Reference: Along with the diploma, a new set of breasts

Thank you Kathy, Dr. Kolb, , and Kacey! We do appreciate you andall you are doing................Along with the diploma, a new set of breastsBy Kreimer Women's eNews Published June 23, 2004This summer 17-year-old Aubrie Wills is getting a special graduationpresent. It's not a new wardrobe, a laptop computer or a trip to Cancun.It's a set of breasts."If I go to college, then no one's going to know my boobs were small,"said the Grapevine High School senior who endures teasing in suburbanDallas. "It would be a lot more evident if I did it in the middle of theschool year."Her mother, grandmother, two aunts and step-mother have implants.Aubrie, who turns 18 in July, hopes to enhance her 32A cups to a smallC. "If my mom is offering to pay for it now, why not?" she said.Last year, 3,841 women 18 or younger underwent breast augmentation, a 24percent jump from 3,095 in 2002, which represents a 19 percent increasefrom 2,596 in 2001, according to the American Society of PlasticSurgeons. Only 978 girls had the procedure in 1992. (Women between 19and 34 account for a large segment of those getting implants; 114,005last year.)More teens visit plastic surgeons this time of year."You see it around graduation," said Dr. Rod J. Rohrich, the society'spresident. "You see it around holidays and spring break, especiallyaround the Christmas season."The phenomenon is taking off across the country, but doctors sayimplants are especially popular in Texas and California."Breasts are a fashion item," said Dr. Garry Brody, professor of plasticsurgery at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "In the1920s--the flapper era--women were binding their breasts to make themlook smaller to suit the fashions.""When I graduated high school in 1990, the big thing was nose jobs,"said Jo Trizila, director of media relations for the Greater DallasChamber. Now, eight of her 10 friends have implants. Those who couldn'tafford them took out a loan.Body image trumps safetyWith television shows like "The Swan" showcasing plastic surgery, moreteens view breast augmentation as a commonplace procedure.A 17-year-old who saw Dr. Melmed before graduation "thought itwould be a fun thing to do," said the Dallas plastic surgeon, whoremoves implants and testified before the Food and Drug Administration'sadvisory panel in October. "They regard it as having your hair done orgetting a new watch. She had no concept that this was a seriousoperation.""We tell them it's real surgery," said Rohrich, chair of plastic surgeryat the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. "Ithas real risks."But for many teens, appearance trumps caution."Our biggest concern with adolescents is that they may not necessarilyappreciate the relative permanence of the changes," said Dr. Sarwer, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania School ofMedicine's Center for Human Appearance in Philadelphia. He has gatheredanecdotes about "suburbs of big cities where cosmetic surgery is arelatively common Sweet 16 or high school graduation gift."Dr. Senderoff of New York, who practices in Manhattan andWestchester County, says minds are often made up before consultationswith him begin. Several 17-year-olds inquired about implants, herecalled, including a teen with severe asymmetry. Insurance coveredimplant surgery for one breast and reshaping the other.When parents ponied up $7,000 for breast enlargement--a cost that variesdepending on location--"they thought it was important for their[child's] well-being," said Senderoff, who turns away girls under 18."At 16 or17, you may be very skinny. By 18, you may fill out a little more."Try telling that to teens who admire full-breasted magazine models."We get calls from teenage girls like, `I'm getting my implants nextweek. What do I need to know?'" said Zuckerman, a psychologist andpresident of the Washington-based National Center for Policy Researchfor Women and Families. "Teenage girls have the worst body image."Unanswered questions"In the patients I'm treating, it's severe lack of breast tissue," saidDr. Kolb, a plastic surgeon and holistic medicine specialist inAtlanta. "It's not that they have a B [cup] and want to go to a C."Kolb knows how they feel. As a flat-chested 31-year-old Air Forcedoctor, she decided it was time to change. After surgery in 1985, sheexperienced a common complication known as capsularcontracture--tightening of scar tissue--around the right implant. Yearslater, her left implant leaked silicone. She developed fibromyalgia andother immune-related disorders along with neurological disease. In 1997,she traded those implants for smooth saline."A lot more research needs to be done on the safety of breast implants,"said Kolb, 49, an expert on saline and silicone complications. "Thereare a lot of unanswered questions in my mind." Risks include surgicalcomplications from anesthesia, excessive bleeding and infection.Over time, implants rupture or deflate, requiring additional surgeries.This can happen immediately, within months, several years or later afterthe initial procedure. With saline implants, women sense a change moreeasily. But the thicker silicone-gel implants maintain a better shape,compromising detection of a rupture.Implants also can make it more difficult for mammography to pinpointbreast cancer. Removing them could result in loss of breast volume,distortion and wrinkling.Information clearinghouseTo inform teens about the health hazards, Kathy ley ston visitsMissouri's secondary schools. She passes around an implant in healtheducation classes and shows graphic photographs of girls disfiguredafter implant removal."We want to be the primary clearinghouse of information in the U.S. onbreast implants," said ston, a registered nurse and executivedirector of Toxic Discovery in Columbia, Mo., which reaches out to highschools and colleges nationwide.ston, who is in her 50s, remembers being teased as a flat-chestedteen. In 1984, she was implanted at no cost in Midland, Texas, as aposter child for a manufacturer's video. She co-founded the advocacyorganization in 1995, the year after autoimmune disease compelled her topart with implants. The plastic surgeon had assured her they would lasta lifetime. It turned out to be a lifetime of pain and suffering. Fuchs-sey underwent a bilateral mastectomy at 35 after threesilicone-gel sets to correct a deformity. She got the first set at 18."The surgery was a birthday present from my parents," saidFuchs-sey, a 46-year-old mother of three girls in Macon, Mo., whosuffers from multiple sclerosis. She believes her 14-year-old daughter's scleroderma, a systemic sclerosis, is linked to siliconecrossing the placental barrier.Saline implants OKdIn 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved saline implants forwomen 18 and older. Its recommendation is only advisory because breastimplants, unlike medications, are not regulated by the FDA. Silicone-gelimplants are not approved for marketing and are available to women onlythrough FDA-approved clinical studies.At 19, Kacey Long went from 34B to 34D while yearning to belong to the"ritzy culture" at Baylor University in Waco. This past September, aboutthree years later, she had the implants removed due to excruciating painand silicone poisoning."My best friend's mom worked for my plastic surgeon for 12 years, andshe received breast implants six months before me," said Long, now a22-year-old graduate student in special education at Texas A & MUniversity at Commerce. "She said that in her time at the office, no oneever had any problems. So I really thought that I had inside info andthat these devices were completely `safe' and maintenance-free."I am still paying on my augmentation surgery," she added, "even thoughmy breast implants are now at home with me in a jar, where they shouldhave been all along."Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribunehttp://www.chicagotribune.com/features/women/chi-0406230152jun23,1,3992978.story?coll=chi-leisurewomannews-hed--^----------------------------------------------------------------This email was sent to: juliejp61@...EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2iT7o.a55jXu.anVsaWVqOr send an email to: BreastImplantNews-unsubscribe@...For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit:http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER--^----------------------------------------------------------------