Aug 14, 2010 11:11 GMT  ·  By

Figures indicate that most plastic surgery patients are women, with an increasing number coming off a bad breakup. The phenomenon is called “vengeance surgery” and should be treated with due attention, a surgeon warns.

People go under the knife for a variety of reasons. Whichever they may be, though, they must be deeply grounded in fact, because surgery is not something one should do in the spur of the moment.

Neither should it be something one does because of outside pressure or because one is looking to get their revenge at an ex in the all too familiar fashion of “looking good is the best revenge possible.”

Surgery is serious – and the same applies to cosmetic surgery, Dr. Charles Nduka, based in London, tells Professional Beauty. Women who go under the knife because they’re going through a divorce need counseling first, Dr. Nduka says.

Nduka’s warning comes on the heels of a statement from a Beverly Hills-based plastic surgeon saying that women should have the reasons they’re getting surgery for very clear – and have counseling if they’re not well defined.

According to him, more and more women are coming into his practice requesting surgery because, they say, it’s their way of coping with a bad breakup or a divorce. In such cases, counseling should come before the scalpel.

“I have a lot of patients coming to me going through marital splits and you have to consider their emotions. Clearly, having surgery during a relationship breakdown is not good idea – it’s a big undertaking,” Dr. Nduka says.

The decision to have surgery must not be prompted by emotions but by reason. “We have to make sure the patient is not having the treatment because of emotional stress,” the expert adds.

As for why women would take such a drastic decision of getting surgery after a breakup, the reasons are obvious: too boost their confidence and to give them the necessary push to move on from whatever it was that broke their heart and their spirit.

“This could be for financial or confidence reasons, but in general I think these people want to look better to feel better,” he explains.

According to Dr. Nduka, most of the patience who turn to “vengeance surgery” are in their 40s or 50s, with an overwhelming majority of 75 percent of them being women.

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