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Women are undergoing surgery to create perfect genitalia amid a "shocking" lack of information on the potential risks of the procedure, a report says. Research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also questions the very notion of aesthetically pleasing genitals. Operations to improve the appearance of the sex organs for both psychological and physical reasons are on the rise. But surgeons said the report overplayed the risks of an established procedure. Researchers from University College London reviewed all the existing studies on cosmetic labial surgery - which generally involves reducing the amount of tissue that protrudes from...

Move over abortion. Here comes sex-change operations. Republicans may call for a vote on an amendment that would keep Obamacare (Pelosicare) from covering sex-change operations.

'Thanks, officer, it really is me' SHANGHAI: The growing popularity of cosmetic surgery is proving to be a huge headache for immigration officials. And the challenge of processing people who look nothing like their passport photos reached new heights on Sunday when 23 Chinese women returned to Shanghai together after visiting South Korea, looking completely different from the way they looked when they left Hongqiao Airport. The travelers had bigger eyes, higher noses and slimmer chins than the women in the photographs. "After they took off their huge hats and big sunglasses following our request, we saw them looking differently,...

Say what you like about Barack Obama, but the man has some brilliant ideas. To help fund his $1 trillion overhaul of the US healthcare system, for example, he wants to tax vanity. Obama's allies have proposed a 10 per cent levy on every plastic surgery procedure (if not medically necessary) ....... This is one piece of social engineering that can harm no one; and if it saves just one American from looking like a Siamese cat in a wind tunnel, Obama will not have ruled in vain.

Nose jobs, breast enhancements, tummy tucks and liposuction could be hit with a ten per cent tax to help foot the bill of Barack Obama's $1 trillion overhaul of the health care system. Max Baucus, the chairman of the senate finance committee which is drawing up one of several versions of a health care reform bill, described the proposed cosmetic surgery tax as "interesting", "creative" and "kind of fun". Americans last year spent $10.3 billion (£6.3 billion) on 12.1 million operations or procedures to improve their looks or replace the hair on their heads. Five million doses of wrinkle-reducing Botox...

DON'T GO THERE: DEMS EYE 10% TAX ON BOTOX, COSMETIC SURGERY Mon Jul 27 2009 17:18:00 ET Face-lifts, tummy tucks and hair transplants could be hit with a new tax to help finance the trillion-dollar healthcare overhaul plan, CONGRESS DAILY reports. The Senate Finance Committee has discussed imposing a 10% excise tax on cosmetic surgery deemed unnecessary for medical purposes. DAILY's Peter Cohn reveals: The idea was broached in a meeting with OMB Director Orszag in mid-July, after which Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus told reporters he had heard some "interesting," "creative," and "kind of fun" ideas. MORE Developing...

Hang Mioku, now 48, had her first plastic surgery procedure when she was 28; hooked from the beginning she moved to Japan where she had further operations - mostly to her face. Following operation after operation, her face was eventually left enlarged and disfigured, but she would still look at herself in the mirror and think she was beautiful. Eventually the surgeons she visited refused to carry out any more work on her and one suggested that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder. When she returned home to Korea the surgery meant Hang's features had...

An educator for 31 years, she was her superstar son's inspiration A publicist for Donda West told the BCC the former Chicago educator and mother of hip-hop superstar Kanye West died "as the result of complications from a cosmetic surgical procedure." The publicist, Patricia Green, gave no more details. Donda West died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital. She was 58. A spokesman for the rapper released a one-sentence statement: "The family respectfully asks for privacy during this time of grief." An educator for 31 years, Donda West started her teaching career in the 1970s at Morris Brown College in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who get cosmetic breast implants are nearly three times as likely to commit suicide as other women, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. The study, published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, reinforces several others that have shown women who have breast enlargements have higher suicide risks. Loren Lipworth of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee and colleagues followed up on 3,527 Swedish women who had cosmetic breast implant surgery between 1965 and 1993. They looked at death certificates to analyze causes of death among women with breast implants. Only 24 of the women had committed...

Distorted Body Image Could Be Linked To Abnormal Brain Function 29 Jun 2007 Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), or dysmorphophobia, is a hidden disease that affects nearly three million Americans. It is hidden because patients with the disease often go to great lengths to hide from the world, often altering their appearance through plastic surgeries, wrongly perceiving themselves to be ugly or having a hideous physical flaw. Sanjaya Saxena, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, is leading a study to identify abnormalities in brain structure and activity that are associated with...

Hunting for a rich husband? Think camouflage, but not the woodsy kind - unless, of course, you're at a rattlesnake roundup, prime husband-hunting grounds in Texas. In an urban milieu, you've got to look prosperous enough to blend in with your prey's elite social circle. For example, drive a leased Lexus only if you can't borrow a Mercedes. J.C. Conklin, author of a snarky new novel about Texas women and their pursuit of a rich husband, advises that even spiritual matters matter. Choose a popular Texas religion, Methodist or Baptist. And don't hesitate to resort to plastic surgery. At the...

Stem cells are becoming more widely used in plastic surgery for breast augmentations, as fillers for wrinkles, and to enlarge any body part where more fullness is sought. With the European Union and Britain having just approved the use of stem cells for cosmetic surgery this month, this move is likely to make the use of stem cells more and more popular worldwide and ultimately in the United States .Stem Cells In Breast Augmentation Stem cells have been used in breast augmentations since 2003, as Japanese scientists have pioneered a treatment that offers a natural breast augmentation that uses stem...

When Ants Go Marching, They Count Their Steps Bjorn Carey LiveScience Staff Writer LiveScience.com Thu Jun 29, 2:00 PM ET Ants use an internal pedometer to find their way home without getting sidetracked, a new study reports. Desert ants on foraging expeditions use celestial cues to orient themselves in the homeward direction, but with few landmarks in the barren land, scientists have wondered how the insects always take the most direct route and know exactly how far to march. The new study reveals that counting their steps is a crucial part of the scheme. Old ideas Over the years, scientists...

Magazine publishes guide to cosmetic fish surgery Tail-less Flowerhorns and Parrots are produced with scissors, not selectively bred as previously believed.A Singapore aquarium magazine has published an article which shows how cosmetic surgery can be performed on pet fish by amputating their tails and injecting them with dyes. The article published in Chinese in Fish Love Magazine, provides a step-by-step guide to producing a tail-less Flowerhorn cichlid using a pair of scissors and some antibiotics, and offers details on how to produce dyed Parrot cichlids using a hypodermic needle and some food colouring. Prior to its publication there had been...

Welcome to Counseling Dear Abby/Dolly will be a 3-4 times a year part of our Weekend singles Thread. Questions will come from YOU. Answers will come from Me… and you on the thread. Please kick in with your thoughts, disagreements, and personal stories. We can learn from each other.. And now.. ON WITH THE SHOW! Whew.. There are a boat load of questions & “situations” here which I will try to address. Good mental health involves being comfortable in one’s skin (even if it is less than perfect, ugly, repulsive, fat, skinny, deformed). Take a look at drop dead...

For love and money, Koreans turn to facial tucks By Su Hyun Lee The New York Times SUNDAY, MAY 14, 2006 SEOUL Fat is something that most people would want to remove from their cheeks. Kim Eun Young, however, had her cheekbones plumped up by a cosmetic surgeon in the hope that her husband's business would blossom. "People say that the fortunes of a husband and a wife go hand in hand," said Kim, 36, a housewife. "But I've never had plump cheeks and two fortune-tellers told me that this meant that money would slip away." In South Korea, where...

January 21, 2006 Berkeley, California My feminist friends think I'm nuts but I had to do it. As a divorced woman well into my fifties, I needed a little "help" getting back into the dating game. After much agonizing, I decided to get a little cosmetic surgery. Nothing really major, just a face, brow, and breast lift. The only problem, I didn't have much money and local doctors quoted me over $15,000.00 for the procedures. Luckily, my cousin Jean knew of a friend's aunt who had a face lift done in Argentina for a fraction of what she would have...

The national news media is abuzz with a story about the possible link between the tragic death of an infant Jewish boy from herpes and his circumcision. At the same time, the media has not fully reported on the fact that circumcision could save millions of lives from the scourge of AIDS. The problem is that circumcision is in the Bible, which makes it a serious violation of the religion practiced by the majority in academia and the mainstream media - secular fundamentalism. They have stood by while millions died and continue to die. How differently they value human life...

FEARS that cosmetic implants used in lips and cheeks could trigger vCJD, the human form of “mad cow” disease, have prompted the Government to launch an investigation. Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said that experts were examining the possibility that tissue implants such as collagen could transmit blood-borne diseases such as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease if contaminated. Although no evidence of such transmission has been discovered, the committee on microbiological safety of blood and tissues believes there might be a risk. Society’s obsession with high cheekbones and luscious lips have prompted thousands of Britons to resort to implants to...

“FACELIFT” TAX TAKES HOLDJan 26, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comby staff reportsA tax bill is being considered in the Washington State Legislature that would add “cosmetic medical services” to an existing list of services currently being taxed. Cosmetic surgery would take its place alongside the taxing of ski lift tickets, tanning salons and janitorial services. The bill has 4 sponsors, one of whom is Jeanne Kohl-Welles. It appears that in a small way, she may be hoping to level the “net worth playing field.” According to Washington-based King5 News, Kohl-Welles believes her is a "rather novel" approach. "In most cases, those who...

<p>April 7, 2004 -- MTV has an unqualified hit on its hands with "I Want a Famous Face," the show about young people who go through painful, often grueling plastic surgery to look like their heroes. But it may not be a hit the network altogether wants.</p>

<p>SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A woman who had breast augmentation and liposuction died of complications due to blood clotting following the cosmetic surgery, coroner's officials said.</p> <p>Maryellen Fluery, 44, of Santa Ana died Monday, three days after she went into her doctor's office for breast enhancements and liposuction. It was ruled a natural death by the coroner, said Jon Fleischman, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner's office.</p>