Showing too much skin?!
Filed under: Style in the News
In today's Style Section of the New York Times, Natasha Singer's article "Newly Petite Skin that's an XL" chronicles the various crises faced by people -- mostly women, mind you -- who have undergone "body contouring" (the invasive surgical processes by which excess weight is removed).True, you can go from size 22 to size 8. But it's costly, in more ways that one. For starters, the price can hit $100,000, and do you think your insurance is going to cover it? More importantly, the procedures have quite a few associated health problems, not the least of which is a great deal of excess skin.
Consider the case of Melissa Byrd, for instance. As Singer points out, Byrd went through gastric bypass surgery and ultimately lost 150 of her 300 pounds. But it came at a tremendous cost -- in short, she suddenly had a lot of skin to deal with. Byrd admits that, before her surgery, her doctor tried to prepare her: "I saw photographs of people who looked like shar-peis," she acknowledges, but goes on to add, "but I didn't really care then."
Certainly, body contouring can change a person's health and a person's self-confidence. But at what cost?
