Prajakta sinha, (name changed), 30, a communication manager, first went to a cosmetic surgeon when her fiancÈ insisted she get a “boob job” done. That was the beginning. In four months before her wedding in December 2006, Prajakta had also got herself a liposuction from her waistline to knees to get a “proportionate look”, followed by a rhinoplasty (nose job).

The urge to look perfect sometimes reaches so deep into the core of a person that it is becoming a kind of obsession. As lunchtime surgeries like botox and chemical peels become the norm and plastic surgery finds newer and newer body parts to put under the knife, like labiaplasty (though it has few takers in India for now, believed to be the hottest thing in the West, the procedure is undertaken to reshape external genital structures) and vaginoplasty (rejuvenation of the vagina involving ‘tightening’ and rebuilding of the vaginal muscles) experts are noticing pychological fallout of the trend – an addition to surgical and non-surgical procedures to alter appearance.

According to a recent study, the demand for cosmetic surgery has increased in the past 5-10 years — the US alone has recorded a growth of 70 per cent and, according to British Medical Journal, Britons spend over 400 million dollars a year on cosmetic surgery. India, according to the Journal, has recorded a growth rate of 15 per cent in the last three years. “Body image obsession is growing year by year and solutions like cosmetic surgery are becoming easier and more prolific just as rapidly,” said Dr. Johnson, Senior Cosmetic Surgeon from Britain.

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