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Women follow Ulrika for £8,000 'natural boob job'
Sophie Goodchild, Health and Social Affairs Correspondent14 Sep 2009
Women are turning to a natural form of breast lift that does not rely on silicon implants.
They are spending £8,000 on a new technique that uses the body's own tissue to firm up the patient's breasts.
TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson, 42, is one of at least 50 patients who have gone under the knife at a Harley Street clinic. After giving birth to her fourth child last July, she spent £11,000 transforming her figure and said it had given her back "the body I had when I was 16".
Professor Laurence Kirwan, a surgeon, said today that the treatment, known as a mastoplexy, is especially in demand from older women who want natural-looking breasts.
He said: "Women like Helen Mirren and Susan Sarandon celebrate their breasts and there is no reason why women in their fifties, sixties and seventies should not look as good as their daughters - or even grand-daughters - when it comes to their breasts."
The mastoplexy causes minimal scarring and involves the surgeon moving the gland from the lower part of the breast to the upper area. The gland is kept attached at its lower end to preserve the blood supply then Professor Kirwan uses a lollipop-shaped closure to reduce scarring. This involves a single scar running vertically under the breast and a natural-looking "purse sting" gathering of skin around the nipple.
Patients need an overnight stay in hospital and take four weeks to recover. The natural "boob job" is suitable for one in five women.
Concerns have been growing about the dangers of implants with women complaining about them leaking, skin rashes and suffering from swollen glands.
Another "natural" method which uses unwanted fat from other parts of the body will be available in Britain from next year. Dubbed the "two in one" operation, the technique, which also costs £8,000, sees surgeons transferring a patient's unwanted fat from areas such as the hips, thighs and stomach into the breast area.
Reader views (5)
I've never seen a 16 year old with those hands and a neck like a tortoise.
- Jon, london, 14/09/2009 12:53
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Well said Nowan King, London. How sad she is considered a person worthy of holding up as an example to others.
- Gary, Brentwood, 14/09/2009 12:17
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People have been following Ulrika Jonsson's example for ages - I've lost count of the single mums I know who have more than one child, each by a different father!
- Nowan King, London, 14/09/2009 11:46
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I thought Ulrika had a reduction not an uplift....... Seems from the before and after pictures she had more done than 'moving a gland' from bottom to top.
- Barbara, sydney Australia, 14/09/2009 09:46
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Alternatively we could stop receiving/demanding advertising, magazines and trash TV which celebrates women's bodies how they aren't.
- Roz, France, 14/09/2009 09:26
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