Breakups and divorces after cosmetic surgery

Plastic surgery has several positive outcomes, most importantly, the impact on self esteem. However, apart from some health risks and side effects, there is one adverse result that no one rarely talks about - its impact on relationships. According to a study commissioned by Grazia magazine, 40% of the women breakup with their boyfriend/husband after their surgeries. What does it tell you? Essentially that plastic surgery led to higher self esteem and better body image, but also to a realization that she now has the capability to get a better man and please him.  However, if your low self esteem was due to other psychological factors, then even cosmetic surgery may not do much.

But remember that the rest 60% of the women do choose to stay with their partner. In fact it is very common for most plastic surgery patients to to have a procedure (breast augmentation in particular) at the request/insistence of the man in their lives.   Apart from this ironical outcome, plastic surgery does mostly good things to patients. 70% of the people said that it had improved their lives overall, and almost 50% report that they had changed their job as a result of feeling better about themselves. But the divorce/breakup issue is rattling to many men and couples.

In a somewhat similarly ironical fashion, women who end a long-term relationship or get a divorce often decide to pay a visit to their surgeon to make sure that they have better luck with men the next time. In an an episode of the reality television program Dr. 90210, Dr. Robert Rey discussed these women. He informed that for many divorcees a plastic surgeon's clinic is the next stop after they are done with their divorce attorney. In other words, women are using cosmetic enhancements to pursue their dreams, be it a better job or a the man next to them.  In the same survey, of those considering going under the knife, 64% thought that it would give them more confidence, 42% wanted to look younger and 13% admitted that they wanted to look more attractive to men. 

So if you are a man financing your wife's plastic surgery, what should you make of this research? Don't deny it to her just because you are afraid of a breakup. It seems that some men get surgery for this very reason. Women who leave their men after recovering from surgery don't do it because they have become hot; they have simply gotten out of a what was probably a bad relationship in the first place. Who knows they might have ended the relationship any way. The new found look was just the kind of event that helped them make that decision. So if you think your relationship is not strong, you need to do something about it - plastic surgery or not.