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December 31, 2002 Volume 38 Issue 46
SPECIAL REPORT: MEN'S HEALTH
Men willing to shed blood to get 'the look'
Men choose to go under knife just to be more normal
By Celia Milne
Ten years ago Dr. Robert Stubbs' cosmetic surgery practice
was made up of 75% women and 25% men. Now it's about 50/50. "We
had to change the dÉcor in the waiting room," he laughs.
"It's now hunting and leather and pictures of horses."
Dr. Stubbs is a certified plastic surgeon and director of the
Cosmetic Surgicentre in Toronto. Though he performs many procedures
"from nose to toes," he is best known for the penis
lengthening procedure he pioneered in Toronto after learning it
from a professor of plastic surgery at the University of Beijing
in 1993. The demand for penis lengthening in Canada?hundreds of
calls a day?surprised him.
"I became infamous for penis lengthening. It got dumped in
my lap. I didn't really want that."
Still, Dr. Stubbs isn't shy about this work. He published results
of his first 300 procedures in the Canadian Journal of Plastic
Surgery in 1997 and the article became "the number one hit
plastic surgery article around the world."
The penis-lengthening craze has somewhat subsided now. As Dr.
Stubbs explains it, five years ago he was sued by a former patient
whose postoperative penis weights fell off while he was receiving
a diploma at convocation. Though the case was thrown out of court,
"word got out" that the operation involves traction
after surgery, and the procedure didn't seem as desirable. Dr.
Stubbs reckons he has done 550 procedures by now, and demand is
still high: He turns down about 85% of requests for medical reasons.
Although the popularity of penis lengthening has plateaued, cosmetic
surgery in men is hot, hot, hot. Men account for 20% of surgical
procedures done by members of the American Society of Plastic
Surgeons. The most popular cosmetic surgeries in guys are nose
reshaping, liposuction, eyelid surgery, hair transplantation and
breast reduction. In the realm of non-surgical procedures, men
flock to doctors for Botox, chemical peels, collagen injections,
laser hair removal and microdermabrasion. Guys are also keen to
pamper themselves; Maclean's recently reported 30% of spa guests
are now male.
The phenomenon of guys improving their looks through cosmetic
surgery is relatively new in the mainstream. "More and more
average guys are saying, 'It's an option for me.' The guy beside
you on the bus, at work or at church is willing to research it,"
says Dr. Stubbs. "Gay men tended to embrace surgery long
before heterosexual men. Now, heterosexual men are prepared to
see their own blood and get stuck with needles."
Is this all about vanity? "Cosmetic surgery is always about
vanity, sure!" says Dr. Mark Solomon, who practises plastic
surgery outside Philadelphia and is co-editor of the book Male
Esthetic Surgery. "Men are seeking cosmetic surgery of all
types more than before," he says. "It is more acceptable."
In Dr. Solomon's practice, about one-third of patients are men.
Many of them, he says, have been sent as guinea pigs for their
wives, who are interested in having cosmetic surgery. Men will
typically come for "little procedures many times" as
opposed to having everything done at once. For instance, they'll
do their eyelids, and come back six months later for a neck lift
and then breast or abdomen liposuction, says Dr. Solomon. They
are also more decisive than his female patients. "Most men,
their minds are made up. Let's go do it. If they've gotten to
this point, they're ready. They're primed." Men have a reputation
for not giving themselves enough time to recover. "They jump
back to life too quickly," says Dr. Solomon.
Impatience is one of the things that got them there in the first
place. "They want to be the best they can be. Going to the
gym, they are not going to get the contour you can get surgically.
I don't think Canadians are different. We live in a world that
puts a premium on the best?the smartest, the richest, the strongest,
the best-looking. It goes in line with all of that."
Dr. Stubbs admits these kinds of procedures are only popular when
times are good.
"During times of peace and affluence, people look at that
aspect of their existence," he says. But he finds, unlike
Dr. Solomon, most of his clients aren't trying to be the best
but merely fixing something that has always bothered them.
"Ninety-nine point nine per cent of men get cosmetic surgery
because they want to enhance something and feel better. Not that
they want to stand out, just blend in."
Mysteriously, in males, the effort of blending in is often focused
below the belt. "Male machismo is always centred around the
pelvic area," says Dr. Stubbs, who offers several genital
improvements, such as testicular implants, foreskin restoration,
adult circumcision, penis lengthening, penis fat injection and
scrotum reduction. Dr. Solomon does genital surgery on men as
well. He calls it "breast augmentation for men."
"It's all about self-image, not sexual function," he
says. "They tell me they want to look better endowed when
they put on a bathing suit."