"VENGEANCE PLASTIC SURGERY"

Forget "Bridalplasty." The real money is in "surgical vengeance."

The reality show in which women compete for pre-wedding cosmetic surgery may be getting all the attention, but doctors who ply their trade sculpting bodies and faces know that just as many - if not more - of the patients walking through their doors are motivated not by a new union but a marital breakup.

"There are a lot of women who come in either pre- or post-divorce who are looking to make themselves feel a little bit better," says Michael D. Cohen, medical director of the Cosmetic Surgery Center of Maryland. The whole story might not come out at the beginning, he says, but once he gets to know a patient, he often starts to hear details of a split.

Two weeks ago he did a tummy tuck and eyelid lift on a woman just out of an 37-year marriage, followed by breast augmentation for a woman in her 20s who found out her husband had cheated on her. "She suggested to the people preparing her for surgery that it was sort of payback," he said.

Hence the nickname the procedures have gained: "vengeance plastic surgery." And it's not just women; it is estimated that 30 percent of the patients are men.  
(Washington Post; 12-12-10)