New Initiative Unites Female Plastic Surgeons

Plastic surgery is performed to enhance the appearance of certain parts of the body. There are also functional medical applications for plastic surgery such as the use of rhinoplasty to improve the ability to breathe for patients that have the surgery. Many visits to plastic surgeons are made by women and common examples of plastic surgery for females include breast augmentation and butt implants. Americans are continuing to visit plastic surgeons. They have been more open to going under the knife to alter their appearance, improve their physical health and boost their confidence. Year after year, the popularity of plastic surgery has grown and more and more people are getting involved in it. Slowly but surely, a larger number of people have come to accept the new possibilities that plastic surgery makes possible. New technologies, innovations and better medical practices mean that it's a field that will continue to grow and attract more patients. Female actresses and singers, along with others in the entertainment industry, continuously flaunt their augmented bodies on social media and on television which also means people are now trying to look like their favorite celebrity without having to spend hours in the gym.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Americans recently spent a whopping sum of 16-billion dollars on cosmetic surgery with some of the most popular procedures being breast augmentation and eye lifts. Cosmetic surgery is not cheap but that has not stopped lovers of plastic surgery from getting their body augmented. This figure is a substantial increase over the 13-billion dollars recorded in 2015. The recent figures are even more impressive with plastic surgery costs being over 20-billion dollars for procedures undergone by Americans in the past year. It seems that, with advancements in technology and the changing attitudes of society, humans are more open to augmenting their body for a better physical appearance. This demand is also on the rise due to advancements in technology which has helped patients enjoy safer surgical procedures.

Female Plastic Surgeons Numbers Remain Steady

In a lot of professions, females have started to have an increased presence. Even in medicine, the number of women involved has improved dramatically. It was expected that the increase in demand for plastic surgeons would lead to more female surgeons but that's not the case. Surprisingly, there has really been no difference in the number of female plastic surgeons currently practicing in the United States. According to the American Board of Plastic Surgery, only a minority of about 23\\% of plastic surgeons were female in 2016. This is even more surprising considering the fact that most cosmetic surgical procedures are performed on women. But it seems that men have continuously dominated this career choice. Data from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery supports this as only 10\\% of its members are female surgeons. Also, the numbers are the same at the International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery as only 10\\% of its members are female surgeons.

No concrete reasons have been given for these low numbers. Apparently, plastic surgery has not been appealing to a lot of women. Could it be a gender-based reason? No one knows for sure.

These women seem to be flocking to other aspects of medicine as close to 50\\% of U.S. medical school graduates over the past decades have been women. Studies have shown that the number of female physicians constantly remained between 12-13\\% from 2000 to 2013. In other surgical specialties, the ratio of female surgeons has started to increase gradually. However, it has been surprisingly low in plastic surgery.

A Committee Dedicated to Change

A medical committee was set up in 2017 to advocate for the increase in the number of female plastic surgeons. The committee was named the ISAPS Women and it was created to help draw more women into plastic surgery. It hopes to do this by providing networking opportunities and increased mentoring for female surgeons. The medical committee also hopes to discuss and treat the challenges of female surgeons around the world. Its operations are being performed in as many as 50 countries. Male surgeons are also welcome to join the committee. They are allowed to provide insight and share tips on plastic surgery. It is also hoped that the inclusion of male plastic surgeons will provide much-needed advice on handling complex procedures and tackling tough situations.

ISAPS Women has proven useful in creating increased awareness of female plastic surgeons. In fact, the gap seems to be narrowing. This is perfectly timed at this moment when more men are beginning to pay a visit to the plastic surgeon. Some may argue that both are related but there's not much evidence to back up that claim. While the gap may be narrowing slowly, there is still a considerably large difference between the number of male and female plastic surgeons. It is still expected that the number of female cosmetic surgeons will grow in the near future. However, the amount of growth to expect is unclear. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the role of female surgeons in plastic surgery in the near future.