More women opt for breast enlargement surgery

As Chinese women acquire deeper pockets, more also seek deeper cleavage and are willing to go under the knife to get it, according to a senior cosmetic surgeon.

The annual number of breast augmentation surgeries has doubled to roughly 100,000 during the past two decades, according to the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.

Jiang Hua, chairman-designate of the association’s cosmetic surgeon branch, said the surgery first came to China in the 1990s and grew quickly between 2005 and 2010.

Worldwide, China is the third-largest market for breast enlargement, after the United States and Brazil, according to industry reports.

To make breasts bigger and improve their shape, surgeons use implants, soft silicone shells that are generally filled with silicone gel.

Chinese women prefer water-drop-shaped implants to round ones, which a majority of Western women seek, Jiang said.

Surgery using top-quality implants costs about 100,000 yuan ($14,700) in China. Most of the surgeries are done at private specialty clinics rather than large State-owned hospitals, said Luo Sheng-kang, head of the breast branch of the Chinese Associ- ation of Plastics and Aesthetics.

Categorized as Grade 2 surgery, breast enlargement is generally safe, Jiang said.

According to the prestigious Mayo Clinic, breast implant ruptures are possible, and may cause complications such as soreness, change in breast size and hardening, but are not thought to cause cancer or other diseases.

Luo suggested women interested in the procedure go to relatively big institutions that perform at least 100 such operations annually.