Popularity of breast implants grows despite high cost, long recovery time

By: Steve Bollard

Posted: 3/31/04

Money can buy beauty - but with it comes peril, blood and pain.

With women like Carmen Electra and Pamela Anderson winning the hearts and minds of men with their augmented breasts, it's no wonder this treatment is becoming a routine process. Greater availability, relative affordability and aesthetic benefits have rapidly increased the popularity of breast enhancement surgery.

The number of women undergoing breast augmentation surgery is growing at an incredible pace, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. In 1992, 32,607 women underwent the surgery, but by 2002, this number had jumped to 225,818. These numbers reflect a 593 percent change within 10 years.

"Looks are such a big part of a woman's life at this age," said Rachel Richter, a sophomore geology major. "Guys think girls with big breasts are more sexual."

"The girls that get them are most likely just insecure. Everybody's insecure a little bit," said Mike Hogan, a sophomore mechanical drafting major.

Though the process is becoming safer and more refined, the fact remains that surgery is a painful and expensive experience. According to the ASPS, the national average price for breast implants in 2003 was $3,375. The total expenditure for breast implants in 2003 was an astronomical $857 million.

Although plastic surgery is most popular among the middle-aged, 19-34 year-olds are responsible for a quarter of procedures, according to the ASPS.

The procedure is fairly simple. A breast implant is a sac of rubbery silicone elastomer, which is placed under the chest tissues through an incision in the nipple or the breast itself. The sac is then filled with a saltwater solution through a valve.

The dangers still weigh heavily on the final decision to go under the knife. Though saline implants have replaced their antiquated silicone gel-filled counterparts, the ASPS says lingering health problems, including bruising and extended recovery time, remain a concern.

Implants are not always a one-time surgery. Almost one-quarter of all saline breast implants will need to be operated on a second time within five years of insertion, according to the Food and Drug Administration. There's also an unspoken expiration date on most implants. Few can be expected to last longer than 10 years.

But despite all of the drawbacks, some women are still willing to withstand such a procedure.

"Guys see women with big boobs as sex objects," said Kristin Sundberg, a sophomore retail major. "A lot of women do it to feel better about themselves."

"It's like an attention grabber. You're going to be drawn to the boobs," said Korey Kryder, a freshman computer engineering major.

There are legitimate medical reasons for wanting breast implants, such as the loss of a breast from cancer, but the majority of implants are done with aesthetics principally in mind. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery conducted a survey in 2003 in which 91 percent of people interviewed said their main reason for getting breast implants was to look better without clothes. Other top reasons were to feel better about themselves and to feel less self-conscious.

"There's so much pressure placed on what you look like," said Amy Travis, a junior advertising and marketing major.

The topic of breast implants is often coupled with the effect that Hollywood has on the collective mind-set. A 2003 study released by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign concluded that exposure to ideal body images on television would lead to women's use of surgical body alteration. Young adults who were exposed to idealized images were more likely to approve of body augmentation as opposed to those who were only exposed to normal body images, the study said.

"I think college-aged girls would have implants because of social pressures to conform," said Tirza Leader, professor of social psychology at Syracuse University. "Most images in the media are of women with large breasts."

"The image out there reflects big boobs," said Jessica Melillo, a sophomore interior design major. "As you get into this age, there's more of a sexual emphasis."