Plastic surgery after weight loss surgery?

There’s not much that’s as divisive in the weight loss surgery community as having plastic surgery after weight loss surgery can be. I’ve really noticed on Instagram, especially lately, that if someone is posting anything to do with plastic surgery there will be negative comments from others about it. This is a bit surprising coming from a community of people who are generally very supportive of each other.

The decision to have plastic surgery is a very personal one. Just like, umm, I don’t know, maybe the decision to have weight loss surgery was for each of us. So why the negativity? When we know how it feels to be judged for the decision to have weight loss surgery why would you judge someone else for choosing to have any plastic surgery procedure?

Anyone who has talked about the fact they’ve had weight loss surgery to more than a couple of people will have had some rude, or at the very least ill-informed questions asked of them about their decision to have weight loss surgery. Fat stigma pervades our society. It’s better to be pretty much anything else as long as you’re not fat. If you’ve got half a brain you know how ridiculous this stigma is, being fat does not define or influence your worth as a person. Ridiculously enough there’s also negative stigma associated with weight loss surgery, you actually can’t win. This is why it pains me to see that within the weight loss surgery community itself there’s stigma about getting plastic surgery after WLS.

I’ve largely made peace with my post WLS body. Yes, I have loose skin, deflated boobs and wobbly bits but it doesn’t really bother me. I haven’t ever seriously considered plastic surgery but that’s not to say that if I won the lottery and had lots of cash that it wouldn’t cross my mind. In fact, it would probably take me all of three seconds to tell you what I’d have done and in what order. I think I hadn’t really thought about it before because I was planning on having a second child and there wouldn’t have been much point getting anything done before then. Even now it’s not even really on my radar. Just because I don’t really feel the need to have plastic surgery doesn’t mean I care in the slightest if other people choose to have it. I’ve seen some incredible results and if it helps people feel more at ease in their body then they should go for it!

What’s the big deal with having plastic surgery after weight loss surgery anyway? Losing large amounts of weight at the speed that we tend to is like nothing else on the body. It’s very likely that after weight loss surgery you will be left with some degree of loose skin. The area’s most likely to be affected are your arms, legs, stomach, back and basically anywhere you have lost weight from. The excess skin can cause problems such as pain, infections and can be hard to accommodate in clothing. There are a huge range of reasons why someone might decide to have plastic surgery including medical and cosmetic reasons.

Regardless, it’s absolutely nobody else’s business what someone decides to do with their body. Having plastic surgery after weight loss surgery is not mandatory. Nobody is forcing you to if you don’t want to.  I would guess it’s probably a minority of people who have weight loss surgery that even end up having plastic surgery afterwards anyway. Ultimately, it’s up to the individual if they have further surgeries after their weight loss surgery or not.

I don’t understand why people feel the need to comment negatively on posts about things they don’t agree with or want for themselves. I think we sometimes forget that if we don’t have anything nice to say then it’s better not to say anything at all. Have you had or are you thinking about having plastic surgery procedures after weight loss surgery? Comment below, I’d love to hear from you.