Dr. Diana Zuckerman, a psychologist and board member of the National Women's Health Network, does not see implants as a sign of empowerment. In many cases, she said, they reflect an urge to conform to an image of sexiness defined by magazines and lingerie catalogs full of models with implants. Not only are more women getting implants, but they want them bigger than ever, said Dr. Joel Rudin, a New York City plastic surgeon who performs two or three breast enlargements per week. But all too frequently these same women return a year later saying that while they're happy with their implants, they wish they had gone a little bit bigger. And many do decide to make the change.
Few women are neutral on the subject of breast enlargement.
Some shudder at the thought of having surgery just to fill a bigger bra, and assume that women who submit to it must lack self-esteem or intelligence. But others see implants as one more means of looking better, albeit a bit more extreme than hair dye, mascara and pierced ears. The key thing is not to let one group tell the other what they can do. His patients have included doctors, lawyers and judges, he said. Many women want implants because their breasts shrank and sagged after childbirth.