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body satisfaction, as indicated by a Finnish study of 65 recipients of the procedure. Specifically, at the baseline, 14 women (22%) demonstrated signs of anxiety and seven (11%) demonstrated signs of depression. At follow up, seven months later, those figures dropped to nine (14%) and five (8%), respectively.59 Similarly, levels of “breast self-consciousness” decreased from 86 per cent to 12 per cent for participants in a surgeon-initiated study of 225 women who had received BA, 60 and, in addition, improvements in levels of self-esteem are also indicated by a US study of 84 women assessed pre- and post-operatively.61 An ethnographic / interview-based study of nine British women who had undergone BA also observes that “they talk about their new boobs enhancing their confidence and self-esteem because they enable them to look good in a bikini, to go without a bra and so wear backless tops and dresses, and to follow new high street fashions. But boobs are also appraised and evaluated as fashion objects in themselves. Natural and surgically altered boobs are looked at, inspected, compared and desired or derided as objects by friends in this network.”62 More generally, psychosocial well-being was also indicated in 88 per cent of women who underwent BA in a small-scale Canadian study.63 56 Adams J (2010) Motivational narratives and assessments of the body after cosmetic surgery Qualitative Health Research 20(6): 755-67. 57 Rubin LR, Klassen A, Cano SJ, Hurley K, and Pusic AL (2009) Motivations for breast surgery: a qualitative comparison study of breast reconstruction, augmentation, and reduction patients The Breast Journal 15(6): 666-7. 58 O’Blenes CAE, Delbridge CL, Miller BJ, Pantelis A, and Morris SF (2006) Prospective study of outcomes after reduction mammaplasty: long-term follow-up Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 117(2): 351. 59 Saariniemi K, Helle M, Salmi A et al. (2012) The effects of aesthetic breast augmentation on quality of life, psychological distress, and eating disorder symptoms: a prospective study Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 36(5): 1090-5. 60 Swanson EMD (2013) Prospective outcome study of 225 cases of breast augmentation Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery 131(5): 1158-66. 61 Figueroa-Haas CL (2007) Effect of breast augmentation mammoplasty on self-esteem and sexuality: a quantitative analysis Plastic Surgical Nursing 27(1): 16-36. 62 Sanchez Taylor J (2012) Fake breasts and power: gender, class and cosmetic surgery Women’s Studies International Forum 35(6): 458-66. 63 McCarthy CM, Cano SJ, Klassen AF et al. (2012) The magnitude of effect of cosmetic breast augmentation on patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 130(1): 218-23. 15 Cosmetic facial procedures “I look better so I feel better. I think that I’m more positive in my approach to other people… which gets me better results… in all areas of my life.” 64 “… it [liposuction, chin lift, Botox, collagen, dermabrasion] made me feel younger, because I kind of associate it with, I don’t know, makes me think of older women when they get so round.