My boob job was a bust
Women reveal how their implants ruined their self-confidence and sex lives
EVERY morning, Laura Freed feels conflicted when she looks in the mirror. On one hand, she likes what she sees: a petite frame with perky, DD breasts that look great in a tank top. On the other, the 47-year-old married mother of three recognizes a woman who tried to mask her physical insecurities with plastic surgery — a decision that still haunts her a decade later.
“I always thought of myself as this confident woman who could get attention without resorting to boobs,” says Freed, a Philadelphia-area resident who works in communications. “I told myself that I had a breast augmentation for myself — that I wanted to look as voluptuous as I [did] in high school. But the truth is, I got the implants because I needed an artificial way to feel better about myself. As soon as they were in, I wished I could go back to the way I was.”
Freed isn’t alone. Many women have found themselves having second thoughts about their breast augmentation procedures. It’s the No. 1 cosmetic surgery in America, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons,
with nearly 300,000 procedures performed each year.
But as cosmetic surgeries increase, so, too, do the regrets. Former “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” actress Stephanie March recently expressed how she wished she hadn’t gotten a breast augmentation in 2014 after her split from Bobby Flay. “I decided to change my body because I couldn’t change my life,” she wrote in an essay for Refinery29. Her implants burst inside her chest postprocedure, creating a medical nightmare.
Other women say the unwanted male attention, painful recovery period and trouble finding outfits that fit contribute to their mixed feelings about their own procedures.
After getting her larger assets, Freed was forced to buy a new wardrobe to accommodate her big bust. She also put on a few pounds so her small frame would be in better proportion to her chest. Worst of all, her breasts had a detrimental effect on her sex life.
“I could feel them swooshing around,” says Freed. “Plus, it was hard to find pretty, delicate lingerie to fit them.”
Jessica Pena, a 36-year-old insurance consultant, was selfconscious about her sagging C cup and jetted to the Dominican Republic to have an augmentation in 2012. For $5,000, the Midtown resident boosted her 34C breasts to a fuller, perkier 36C.
Pena says she regretted the decision almost immediately.
“I’m an introvert, and I hated how my new 36Cs got constant attention,” she says. After two years of warding off stares, Pena went to Park Avenue doctor Tracy Pfeifer, who serves on the board of directors at the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, to get the implants removed. Pena’s fiancé, Charles, who urged her not to get the implants in the first place, footed the $20,000 price tag.
“He wanted me to feel happy and comfortable with my body. As soon as the twoweek recovery was over, I did.” The benefits, says Pena, were immediate: “I felt more professional at my job because I was no longer bursting out of my shirts. I just felt a lot more comfortable with who I was.”
For others, it’s not the past that they regret — it’s what’s still to come.
“I got saline implants in 2006, and they still look amazing,” says Tracy McCormick, a 48-year-old p.r. professional and mother of three, who boosted her 36B breasts to a 36D with implants. “But a decade later, I’m terrified because I know they won’t last. Even my doctor told me that I should expect to come back in 10 years to get them redone.”
Plastic surgeons say leaks or ruptures are more likely to occur the longer an implant stays in the body, and that, coupled with bodily changes like weight fluctuation or pregnancy, they can require revision down the road.
“I had a tough recovery and I’m a physically active person,” says McCormick, “so to me, it’s really scary to know that sometime in the future I will have to walk into a clinic as a healthy person and come out as someone who can’t even lift a bag of groceries for six weeks without help.”
Regardless of implants’ popularity, even plastic surgeons are adamant that patients consider the risks of breast augmentation, not just the perks.
“I tell patients to get a second opinion, to make sure they’re not getting their procedure in reaction to a major personal event [such as] a divorce or a job loss,” says Park Avenue-based plastic surgeon Paul Lorenc, who also stresses the long, potentially painful recovery. “It should never be a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
Despite their differing reasons for rethinking their boob jobs, all three women agree that accepting one’s natural beauty is a better option than plastic surgery.
“I love my new, completely natural look and don’t care anymore if my breasts sag a little. That’s part of life,” says Pena. “To any woman considering a breast augmentation, I’d tell them to think twice, three times, four times about it. Sometimes you are looking for perfection, but there’s no such thing.”