Breasts too visible or not enough, hips too wide, deformed, ugly nose... Adolescence, because of the young bodies it transforms, is conducive to physical preoccupations and complexes that are sometimes difficult to overcome.
In some cases, cosmetic surgery is a route that a few can think of to alleviate the suffering.
In the columns of
Vogue magazine
, in early March, Bella Hadid said she had rhinoplasty at the age of 14.
And regret it.
On social networks, the aesthetic medical profession, and especially his mother, have been pilloried.
Did the latter fail in its duty, by authorizing the operation?
Is an adolescent complex sufficiently justified to be taken seriously enough to call for the knife?
Is this operation a legitimate medical act, especially when it affects a nose and such a young patient?
The very difficulty of finding a child psychiatrist willing to answer these questions proves how thorny the problem is.
But not unsolvable.
Faced with this dilemma, helpless caregivers can call on a clinical ethics consultation, as there is at the Saint-Nazaire Hospital Center.
Guillaume Durand, lecturer in philosophy in Nantes, specialist in medical ethics and bioethics, directs it.
He gives us his opinion, purely advisory, on cosmetic surgery in adolescence.
Madame Figaro-
What does it mean to be handsome or beautiful for a teenager in 2022?
William Durand.
–
History has shown us that the value attributed to beauty is variable.
If certain physical traits can be objectively defined as "beautiful", the image of the ideal body comes from a representation of a group among others, at a given period.
During adolescence, young people will thus seek to be recognized by their peers by trying to conform to the standard of beauty set by their group.
And for some, a physical complex can contribute to deviate from this path and cause suffering.
When a heavy physical complex cannot be solved by psychotherapy, can cosmetic surgery be a way to consider?
Indeed, sometimes the best psychological support possible does not solve the suffering of what is considered to be a deformity.
Studies have also shown that cosmetic surgery can also be therapeutic.
By helping to improve self-esteem and self-confidence, it helps to increase well-being, attractiveness, social and professional success.
We must break with this taboo which consists in respecting, at all costs, the body that has been given to us.
However, beware of extreme reflections.
However, physical transformation should not be imposed and systematized by society.
Sometimes the best possible psychological support does not resolve the suffering
Guillaume Durand
Bella Hadid's mother is
widely criticized
for giving parental consent and paying the bill for her daughter's rhinoplasty.
What bothers us in this process, ultimately?
Aesthetic medicine has always been abused by society.
The caregivers who practice it are accused of being venal or of being charlatans.
Their patients are mocked and targeted with value judgments, considering that only their appearance matters in life.
These received ideas affect women more, because it is believed that their body must remain a sacred altar, untouchable by the individual.
But today, the younger generations come to break this taboo more and that is what is disturbing.
They are more likely to claim that their body belongs to them, and to seize, when they can, cosmetic surgery which is becoming more democratic to model an element of their anatomy;
a nose, ears, breast or vulva.
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How to estimate, then, that a request is legitimate and that it is not motivated by injunctions related to beauty?
Admittedly, the boundary between reconstructive and aesthetic surgery is not always clear.
It is therefore the role of the doctor to distinguish the deformity, judged as an object of suffering, individual and social, from that of a desire linked to a fad.
In clinical ethics consultation, our job is precisely to assess the autonomous nature of the request.
We wonder about the patient's ability to make a decision in a free and informed way, without external pressure.
This implies ensuring that the adolescent is able to understand the situation and the issues at stake in his request, to express his motivation and to clearly formulate rational arguments.
If the words are confused, we redouble our caution.
Here, the situation of Bella Hadid questions me.
Judging by his words,
it would seem that her request for rhinoplasty actually hides a desire to erase a characteristic specific to an ethnic group, “the nose of her ancestors”, she says.
His speech would have deserved to be examined more, because cosmetic surgery is harmful when it is used as an instrument of racial discrimination.
Teenagers also have a reading grid, they are capable of judgment and lucidity
Guillaume Durand
Should there also be an age limit?
No, that seems to me arbitrary and unsuited to reality.
Each part of the body does not necessarily evolve in the same way and their conditions of access to cosmetic surgery are not based on the same criteria.
To model a vulva, for example, you have to wait for a certain stage of development of the genital organs.
Intellectually too, it fluctuates.
Some teens may show maturity at a very young age, and some may not.
Each situation is unique.
Read alsoHow to be confident in front of others?
We tend to forget that a teenager can decide to resort freely and in full autonomy to cosmetic surgery...
Yes, teenagers also have a reading grid, they are capable of judgment and lucidity.
Some are aware of the weight of standards and if they knowingly choose to comply with them, they still retain freedom of choice.
Cosmetic surgery can be, despite common morality, an act of self-affirmation, helping the individual to accomplish himself.
And this, even if the latter seeks to shine in the eyes of others.
As a parent, how do you react to a request for surgery?
Do not accept this request too quickly.
We start by sitting down and discussing it.
To help the teenager get better in his body, the parent can suggest that he play sports or enroll in artistic activities.
If despite all these efforts, the suffering persists, it is better to consult a psychiatrist or a psychologist, who will help to discern the complex of the psychic disorder.
If things are looking good, this may lead to an appointment with a cosmetic surgeon.
The answer does not have to be immediate or the action of a single individual in his firm.
Both parents and doctors must temporize these requests because the surgical act remains irreversible.
If we come to the conclusion that what makes you happier is the operation, it seems to me that we should respect this reflection.
If we come to the conclusion that what makes you happier is the operation, it seems to me that we should respect this reflection
Guillaume Durand
Bella Hadid said she regrets her rhinoplasty. After surgery, is the feeling inevitable?
No, but we necessarily expose ourselves to it, like each of the decisions we make in life.
You can have children and regret it.
It is a taboo to say it but this risk is real and the parents concerned live with it.
In aesthetic medicine, as in any other medical field, it is precisely the role of the medical profession to ensure that this potential regret is reduced as much as possible by delaying, evaluating and supporting each request on a case-by-case basis.
Obviously, we cannot be absolutely certain, but unless proven otherwise, no study shows a major regret rate of rhinoplasty or breast reduction.
(1)
A philosopher in the hospital
, by Guillaume Durand, published by Flammarion, 192 pages, €18.