Patients also must be aware of surgery specific issues, which can vary, depending on the surgery, and may even appear months after the operation. Six months after Savvy Miss member Lisaebby got her breast lift, something changed (as she posted on a message board). “I noticed I was falling … Well, the sagging only got worse until I had no upper pole fullness at all and my breasts were very droopy—probably even lower than they were from before my first lift. I could feel most of the implants easily and when I lay down they went way out to my armpits.”

Even though complications like Lisaebby's do occur, Dr. Youn estimates that only about five percent of patients experience these plastic surgery-specific problems.

The Recovery.

When you get out of surgery you feel like you have an elephant sitting on your chest. Then when you take the bandages off and look at them in the mirror they look like two big cones. The nipples are swollen and they are really hard. —Maegan Berry, 23

Maegan Berry, an insurance agent from Pleasanton, Calif. underwent a breast augmentation at the age of 22. Although post-surgery was excruciating, it wouldn’t stop her from doing it again. “The recovery was pretty painful and I have a really high tolerance for pain. I had to take a week off work. But I would get it done again in a second; that’s how much they mean to me.”

Jordan,* 29, who had the same surgery one year ago, also had a difficult time with the recovery process. “At first I wasn’t happy. They felt hard and I cried immediately after.”