Aged between 16 and 55 years, majority of these women are said to be very conscious of how they look, with cosmetic surgery coming in handy to enhance their beauty and attractiveness.

In the last one year alone, over 70 women have had their breast either reduced, enlarged, or lifted in attempt to gain a better body symmetry.

Aged between 16 and 55 years, majority of these women are said to be very conscious of how they look, with cosmetic surgery coming in handy to enhance their beauty and attractiveness.

In the last one year alone, over 70 women have had their breast either reduced, enlarged, or lifted in attempt to gain a better body symmetry.

At least another 30 have had surgery to manipulate their tummy size and shape through what is called abdominoplasty or tummy tuck – a procedure that involves tightening of the abdominal muscles and removing of extra fatty tissue and skin of the lower abdomen.

This particular practice is becoming popular among older women or men who have loose abdominal skin that refuse to respond to diet or exercise; women who develop tummy wrinkles upon giving birth; or those with stretched and ugly marks left after caesarean section.

Also jamming plastic surgeons clinics are women who want their hips reduced to shapes and sizes that follow specific contours as those of models or colleagues they admire.

Women with flat calf – the thick fleshy part at the back of the leg between the ankle and the knee- are too in demand of augmentation as they struggle to compete with better endowed colleagues.

Doctors say those with well-shaped calf flaunt them around by wearing mini-skirts, while their counterparts with flat ones prefer wearing trousers or long skirts.

But what Dr Stanley Khainga, a plastic surgeon based at Kenyatta National Hospital finds interesting is the number of people consulting them for nose surgery as well.

“Even black people are now coming to us to have their nose done because they do not like its shape. This was a white man’s thing.”

“As women get to know what these procedures can do to reduce their pain or make them look attractive, their interest in this type of surgeries soars,” he says.

Last year, for instance, he augmented breasts of over four women, did breast reduction to 10 women, and handled 14 cases of tummy tucking.

The technique uses a solution of saline, lidocaine, and adrenaline to infiltrate and breakdown fatty tissues before sucking them out.

“In most cases, liposuction is combined with breast reduction or tummy tucks to get good contours of the body,” explains Dr Khainga.

But the results of these interventions for those eager to change how they look do not come cheaply. Breast reductions, which are the most popular thing in the country, cost between Ksh 120,000 and Ksh 150,000.

At Kenyatta National Hospital, tummy tucks attracts a fee of over Ksh 30,000, while liposuction goes for over Ksh 120,000 when conducted in some of the leading private hospitals.

Like insurance companies in other countries, local ones do not cover costs for elective or cosmetic surgery. They however meet the expenses if the surgery is done on medical ground.

Despite the costs and the challenges involved in these surgeries, women and men are either saving or using their hard earned income to accomplish their wishes. 

Doctors interviewed by Sunday Nation argue that the costs for cosmetic surgery are justified since plastic surgery was ideally meant for therapeutic purposes to help women and men who really have medical problems.

“If a woman wants cosmetic surgery, then she should be prepared to pay, for it is meant for those who have money and can afford the market prices,” said Dr Daudi Tanga, a surgeon who works at Kenyatta National Hospital.

Dr Khainga agrees. He thinks cost is not an issue to some people who are desperate to have a new symmetry of their body parts.

The only problem is, in some cases, women are going through this painful and costly surgery just to please their fiancés or husbands or to look attractive to men.

“There are times when you ask them why they want to do the surgery, and the answer is to please my husband or boyfriend. Such women we leave them out because they might not be happy with the outcome of the surgery,” say Dr Khainga.

For those who pass the test, they are given dummies showing, for instance, the different sizes and shapes of breasts or the outcome of any other preferred surgery. 

A series of counseling sessions are undertaken to prepare an individual for the surgery. The person is then asked to read carefully and sign a pamphlet that details about the surgery, the possible outcomes, and the side-effects.

This step helps the surgeons to insulate themselves in the event of a legal action taken by women who might not be happy with their new looks.

Once the client has settled on the symmetry she wants and signed the consent form, the doctor models her breast or the part of the body in question to take the desired shape and size.

In the case of breast surgery, a woman can choose high profile projections, which is more pointed and pronounced, or low profile projections.

Elastic silicon gel or seline (sterile salt water) prosthesis implants are then inserted to give the breast the shape and size the woman is looking for.

Leading on the list of those plastic surgeries highly sort after by Kenyan women are the tummy tucks, breast reduction, liposuction, breast augmentation (augmentation mammoplasty), and breast lifting (mastopexy), in that order.

Tummy tucks operation takes about two hours and can also be done by men who want to reduce excess fats around their abdomen.  Breast reduction and lifting is done for larger breasts, with augmentation or enlargement being applied on women with smaller or sagging breasts.

For women who are still bearing children, breast lifting is not advised because another pregnancy will offset the results of what already exists.

Liposuction on the other hand is a one day operation mostly used on people who want to shed-off excess fat. 

But some plastic surgeons say they are not comfortable with liposuction as women who undergo it can experience, among other things, the risk of developing a blood or fat clot, which can cause death if it travels into the lungs.

Doctors argue that liposuction is not meant as a treatment for obesity, an eating related problem which can be managed through dieting and exercises.

Besides liposuction, breast enlargement is another surgery some surgeons tend to avoid when the person seeking the service is a minor.

“There are times when I get outrageous demands from young girls who want their breasts enlarged,” another plastic surgeon who requested anonymity says.

Two years ago, a 16-year-old girl from one of the affluent families was willing to pay him over Ksh 200,000 to have her breasts enlarged.  He counseled her against doing the surgery but she insisted.

“I had to ask her to come back with her parents because at her tender age, the breasts were still developing.”  The girl’s mother refused to sign a consent form and the surgery was not done.

In Britain, a new of Memorandum of Understanding has been developed prohibiting breast enlargement surgery to women below 18 years old.

According to Dr Khainga, those below the age of majority are prohibited from such a surgery since the breast may naturally become bigger when the girl attains a certain age. In fact, in the four cases he did breast augmentation last year, the candidates were in their late 30s.

“Only in cases where a woman is suffering from Polands Syndrome can we readjust her breast even when young,” he says. 

Poland’s syndrome is a congenital problem where there is underdevelopment of one breast compared to the other. 

Remedy includes expansion of the underlying tissues followed by insertion of a breast implant, or use of a musculocutaneous flap to fill the hollow space in the chest wall.

What most women seeking breast enlargement do not know is the smaller the breasts the better their ability to produce milk, according to doctors.

Hence women who enlarge their breast while in their reproductive years stand a high risk of reduced milk production. In fact surgeons are more comfortable with those who are done with child bearing and not teenagers when it is a case of augmentation.

But not only teenagers are to blame for seeking things they might not need; men too have been knocking at the doors of plastic surgeons with some crazy requests.

A case in point is what happened last year in Nairobi. A man in his early 30’s was ready to pay dearly to have his penis elongated because he complained that it was too short.

“He approached me last year complaining of having problems sustaining relationships and he needed my help,” says a surgeon who practices in the city.

Although plastic surgeons like the one he consulted say they can elongate the size of the penis by up to 3cm, they refuse to do so if it is not based on medical grounds. 

The only time he elongated the penis of his client was one of a man who had been badly burnt.

“This was a justified case, and I agreed to increase it by two centimeters,” says the surgeon.

At Kenyatta National Hospital, Dr Khainga says they only concentrate on penis reconstruction in cases where it is cut off or suffers severe injuries; even though penis elongation is possible.

 “If the penis is severed, the only thing is for the affected person to preserve it well using ice-cubes and then rush it to us for reconstruction.”

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