While this may be true if you want to freshen your breath with a chewing gum, when applied to your breast, the equation may be different. For not only can breast augmentation be dangerous, it can be downright deadly.

The French, who gave us the brassiere, originally designed to support big breasts, are now recalling silicone implants made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP). Reports indicate that this now defunct manufacturer used non-medical grade silicone in its implants.

This apparent inferior silicone has been linked to increased rate of ruptures and increased rates of an otherwise rare but highly fatal form of breast cancer – Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL). Authorities in France are asking women to have the implants removed, while in Britain and Brazil they are asking women to do greater than usual checks with their surgeons.

As far back as 2000, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to PIP citing deficiencies in its product; but French and European Union authorities seemed oblivious to the grave potential risk, until now.

However, some observers think this may be part of the modus operandi of regulatory bodies in Europe and the US. That is, they may be more willing to blacklist products from a foreign country as opposed to their own. The FDA was criticized for relying on information provided by manufactures who have an interest in keeping their own products on the market.

In spite of who might be right or wrong, there is no doubt that implants can be dangerous even in cases when the right material is used. Not that this has stopped an ever-increasing number of women all over the world from getting implants.

For example, according to Dr Donald Brown, plastic surgeon of San Francisco, over 5 million women in the United States have had breast augmentation as of 2010. This represents a 39 percent increase between 2000 and 2010. Further, in the US in 2010 alone, over 2 billion dollars were spent on breast implants.

Is this trend, at least in part, being fueled by a superficial sense of beauty, media celebration of women with big fake – boobs (eg Pamela Anderson) or women who think that this can help them to get a man? Of course, there are some women (a small percentage) who have these procedures done for medical reasons.

There is no doubt that many women are satisfied (or at least claim they are) with their breast augmentation. However, for hundreds of thousands of women, the results are much different.

The same way we see many movie stars walking around with botched botox and faces where plastic surgery has obviously gone wrong, breast augmentation surgery has many bloopers. Some of these just make the breasts ugly; others can kill.

A common complication of breast augmentation is lopsided breasts. Now, for most women, the breasts are not totally symmetrical, but due to uneven healing, material failure or surgical error, the unevenness may be really pronounced after surgery. This may lead to low self esteem, stress, and another expensive trip to the surgeon.

Infections that occur after the breast surgery are generally not difficult to treat. But at times, they can be resistant to antibiotics, and one has to return to the surgeon to remove the implant. Even deaths have occurred due to these infections.

The phenomenon of bottoming out occurs when the implant rides too low in the breast tissue, and the nipples point downwards. To correct this condition involves even more technical and expensive surgery than the original.

In some cases of breast augmentation, the surgeon takes away your cleavage, as the breasts are too close to each other. This condition is called synmastia, and most likely is corrected with another trip to the surgeon.

In a condition known as capsular contracture, the scar tissue from the surgery creates a capsule around the implant. This causes the implant to feel hard and misshapen, and distorts and disfigures the breast.

Then there is the “double bubble” breast deformity. This is a postsurgical complication that occurs when one or both breast implants drop down below the inframammary crease (where the breast meets the chest). This creates a line across the lower part of the breast. Hence, your double bubble may lead to the “four-breast effect” and revision surgery.

While most of the complications may spoil the aesthetics of the breast, there are some that may cause serious medical complications, and even death. For example, ALCL is a deadly form of cancer, but normally has a very low incidental rate. However, in women with breast implants this rate is much higher.

Even in cases when ALCL does not cause death, it causes pain, swelling, asymmetry, and lumps. This often leads to depression and anxiety among women and their mates. And there have been cases of suicide of women, when they, or their mates, were dissatisfied with the results of breast augmentation surgery.

What is the take home message? If you are going to do breast augmentation, do you research, know the possible complications, and your risk factors for the same. Learn as much as possible about the expertise of your surgeon and the quality of continuing care.

But the bigger question may be, do you need bigger breasts? Is the quality of your life so low that you need to artificially lift your breasts higher? Is your concept of beauty so set by a superficial Hollywood value system? Do you think so low of yourself that you have to get bigger breast to please a man?

Only you can decide; but the quality of what lies beneath your chest wall – your heart – is considerably more important than the size of what lies upon it.

Dr Jerry Simon (NSA Medical Surgical Rehab Centre, 268 4620631, nsamedical@gmail.com).

Article source: http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/opinions/opinion-pieces/drjerry-simon/99595-beware-the-double-bubble-bigger-can-be-deadly.html

The office of plastic surgeon Ignacio Sousa is so packed that women are lined up outside the door. College students in their 20s, housewives in their 40s, middle-class office workers: nearly all are fearful that their breast implants may be leaking.

Thousands of women worldwide are consulting their doctors about health concerns that have sprung up since December due to faulty silicone breast implants made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP. In some cases, the implants filled with industrial-grade silicone have split open, prompting growing demand for their removal.

“It’s like a snowball,” said Sousa, who has been receiving dozens of patients every day since the news broke that French authorities recommended the implants be removed.

The scandal has hit beauty-obsessed Venezuela particularly hard. An estimated 16,000 Venezuelans have the implants, one of the highest figures among Latin American countries, along with much-larger Brazil, where about 20,000 women have PIP-made implants.

Breast enlargement surgery is common in Venezuela and has grown in popularity in recent years among middle-class women, thanks in part to low-interest loans offered by private clinics for the operations.

The PIP brand was used frequently until the implants were pulled from the market in 2010.

Like many of those affected in Venezuela, Sania Arroyo has struggled with the mounting medical bills. The 33-year-old bank employee and single mother managed to save about 20,000 bolivars, or $4,600, for surgery to replace the implants in January, scraping together nearly four times what she paid to have them inserted in 2007.

She suspected a problem with the implants when she felt a tingling pain under her left breast, and an ultrasound exam confirmed one had ruptured and was leaking silicone into her body.

She said the replacement implants feel more comfortable, but she’s still apprehensive about them.

“I feel so much better now, although I still have the fear something similar could happen again,” Arroyo said, holding a plastic case containing the ruptured implant and the yellowish silicone that leaked out.

PIP’s silicone gel is transparent, but doctors say the substance often turns yellow when it comes in contact with body tissues.

Arroyo is one of 495 Venezuelans who are suing companies that sold the implants, demanding payment of medical costs.

Venezuela’s government offered to remove the implants for free, but many women say they won’t take up the offer because they prefer to have new implants and the government won’t pay for them.

French authorities say an estimated 300,000 women have the implants worldwide, including more than 42,000 in Britain, more than 30,000 in France, 9,000 in Australia and 4,000 in Italy.

The implants were never approved for sale in the United States, but tens of thousands of pairs were sold in Latin America. In Colombia, for instance, the association of plastic surgeons says about 14,000 pairs of PIP implants were sold.

On a per-capita basis, Venezuela appears to lead Latin America in the number of breast implants. That’s no surprise to most people in the country, where beauty pageants are a source of national pride and where some teenagers receive implants as birthday presents. Middle-class women sometimes set aside large portions of their salaries for the surgery.

Article source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/venezuelans-line-switch-pip-breast-implants-15480207

The office of plastic surgeon Ignacio Sousa is so packed that women are lined up outside the door.

College students in their 20s, housewives in their 40s, middle-class office workers: nearly all are fearful that their breast implants may be leaking.

Thousands of women worldwide are consulting their doctors about health concerns that have sprung up since December due to faulty silicone breast implants made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP.

In some cases, the implants filled with industrial-grade silicone have split open, prompting growing demand for their removal.

“It’s like a snowball,” said Sousa, who has been receiving dozens of patients every day since the news broke that French authorities recommended the implants be removed.

The scandal has hit beauty-obsessed Venezuela particularly hard. An estimated 16,000 Venezuelans have the implants, one of the highest figures among Latin American countries, along with much-larger Brazil, where about 20,000 women have PIP-made implants.

Breast enlargement surgery is common in Venezuela and has grown in popularity in recent years among middle-class women, thanks in part to low-interest loans offered by private clinics for the operations.

The PIP brand was used frequently until the implants were pulled from the market in 2010.

Like many of those affected in Venezuela, Sania Arroyo has struggled with the mounting medical bills. The 33-year-old bank employee and single mother managed to save about 20,000 bolivars ($5650) for surgery to replace the implants in January, scraping together nearly four times what she paid to have them inserted in 2007.

She suspected a problem with the implants when she felt a tingling pain under her left breast, and an ultrasound exam confirmed one had ruptured and was leaking silicone into her body.

She said the replacement implants felt more comfortable, but she’s still apprehensive about them.

“I feel so much better now, although I still have the fear something similar could happen again,” Arroyo said, holding a plastic case containing the ruptured implant and the yellowish silicone that leaked out.

PIP’s silicone gel is transparent, but doctors say the substance often turns yellow when it comes in contact with body tissues.

Arroyo is one of 495 Venezuelans who are suing companies that sold the implants, demanding payment of medical costs. Venezuela’s Government offered to remove the implants free, but many women say they won’t take up the offer because they prefer to have new implants and the Government won’t pay for them.

French authorities say about 300,000 women have the implants worldwide, including more than 42,000 in Britain, more than 30,000 in France, 9000 in Australia and 4000 in Italy.

The implants were never approved for sale in the United States, but tens of thousands of pairs were sold in Latin America.

In Colombia, for instance, the association of plastic surgeons says about 14,000 pairs of PIP implants were sold.

On a per-capita basis, Venezuela appears to lead Latin America in the number of breast implants.

That’s no surprise to most people in the country, where beauty pageants are a source of national pride and where some teenagers receive implants as birthday presents. Middle-class women sometimes set aside large portions of their salaries for the surgery.

About 35,000 to 40,000 women undergo breast enlargement surgeries in Venezuela each year, and doctors say the numbers have been rising.

“Terror has certainly gripped patients who have the implants, but I don’t believe the desire for breast enlargement surgery is going to diminish,” said surgeon Gabriel Obayi.

Like most surgeons in Venezuela, Obayi recommends that PIP implants eventually be removed but advises that surgery is not urgent in most cases.

Regardless of the brand, breast implants are known to break down over time and rupture in some cases.

The US Food and Drug Administration banned silicone-gel type implants in 1992 amid fears they might cause cancer, lupus and other diseases.

However, in 2006 the agency returned the implants to the US market after most studies failed to find a link between silicone breast implants and disease.

The FDA began an investigation last year into a possible link between implants and a very rare form of cancer, known as anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The agency said it had learned of about 60 cases of the disease worldwide among women with implants.

France’s Health Safety Agency has said the suspect PIP implants appear to be more rupture-prone than other types, but officials have not specified why.

French health authorities have said they don’t know enough about the health effects of the industrial-grade silicone in the faulty implants, and have recommended that women get them removed after the implants ruptured in more than 1000 cases. The Government has agreed to pay for the procedure.

Investigators in France say PIP sought to save money by using industrial silicone rather than the medical-grade variety.

Last week, French authorities filed preliminary charges against PIP’s founder, Jean-Claude Mas, who according to his lawyer is under investigation for “involuntary injury”. His company went into bankruptcy proceedings shortly after the Government in 2010 pulled the implants from the market.

The scandal has left many women asking about the risks they may face, and doctors so far have limited answers.

It’s also unclear how many women have had the implants removed so far.

In Argentina, about 300 women are negotiating with private clinics and a local distributor, Pro Estetica, demanding the defective implants be replaced for free, said lawyer Virgina Luna, who represents the group.

Gabriela Febres, a 30-year-old financial analyst in Caracas, has joined the legal case against Venezuelan distributors.

She suspects she needs to have surgery soon because her right breast has been hurting for weeks.

“This affects you in so many ways: your job, your finances and your psychological state,” Febres said. “The uncertainty is the worst.”

THE NUMBERS:

35,000 to 40,000
Venezuelan women undergo breast enlargement surgeries each year

16,000
Venezuelans believed to have PIP implants

495
Venezuelans suing companies that sold implants, demanding medical costs

- AP

By Christopher Toothaker

Article source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10783357

Stacey Dargan has French PIP implants which she wants taken out after revelations that they contain materials used in cars Picture: Ben Swinnerton
Source: Herald Sun

A TERRIFIED young Melbourne woman is one of the 170 Australians considering a potential class action over French-made breast implants.

Stacey Dargan, 21, is worried the implants that promised to boost her self-esteem will rupture and leak into her body.

She is one of up to 400,000 women worldwide who had Poly Implant Prothese implants put in. Unknown to them, the makers used cheap industrial silicone.

The implants have had a high rupture rate.

“I’m left feeling as though I have these ticking time bombs strapped to my chest, that could explode any minute,” Ms Dargan said.

Almost two years ago, the student paid $10,000 for a breast enlargement to boost her self-esteem and make her feel more feminine.

She is one of 10 Victorians who have signed up with legal firm Tindall Gask Bentley in anticipation of a huge class action.

“We are individuals fighting our own battle and it’s terrifying,” Ms Dargan said.

Her new breasts began to ripple less than a year after the operation.

Pain has since developed in her right breast, she feels tired all the time, and she has some hair loss.

“It’s taken a toll on my personal life. I’m constantly thinking about it and worrying about what all happen if I leave them in,” she said.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has confirmed 102 reports of rupture in Australia.

But it advised women that the complication rate for PIP implants in Australia was consistent with those of other brands. There was not a higher rupture rate and there was no evidence of cancer.

Injury lawyer Tim White said if a court action proceeded, the women would be claiming for medical expenses and psychological suffering.

Mr White said many of the women were planning to have the implatns removed. Some had had several surgical procedures because of complications and many had experienced ruptures.

“Some have found lumps of silicone under their arms,” Mr White said.

He said many women were concerned about the expense of implant removal and replacement, which could cost up to $15,000.

Miss Dargan said she felt very alone.

“I really don’t know what to do,” she said. “I can’t afford to have them removed and replaced.”

vandenbergL@heraldsun.com.au

Article source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/scared-woman-signs-up-to-mooted-lawsuit-on-breast-operations/story-fn7x8me2-1226262250347

Written by Simon Musasizi

You have probably seen these curious offers along the road in some Kampala suburbs.

“Manhood Enlargement”, “Hips Enlargement”, “Breasts Enlargement”, the posters scream. Our reporter, Simon Musasizi, went to find out…

You have probably seen these curious offers along the road in some Kampala suburbs. “Manhood Enlargement”, “Hips Enlargement”, “Breasts Enlargement”, the posters scream. Below the message is a telephone contact. Even if you are not the kind to consider getting an enlargement job, you have to wonder: does it really work?

Succumbing to journalistic curiosity, I picked up my phone to explore the murky world of penis enlargement. It wasn’t easy finding the once ever-present posters. It looks like the recent police crackdown on the business has left the posters in very few locations.

Still, you can find remnants of these posters in the outskirts; near the Bukoto roundabout, along the northern bypass for instance.  I dialled the number and, to my surprise, I heard a female voice after the first ring. I had thought that it would be engaged because of high demand or switched off following the police crackdown.

“Hello, tukuyambeki ssebo? [How may we help you?],” she asked.
I had expected a fellow man to be dealing with the manhood issue. Then I remembered that the phone number on the poster also handles breast and hip enlargements.

Time to state my problem: I need help enlarging my penis.
“That is simple; come to our offices,” she confidently replied.

She directed me to board a Najjanankumbi or Namasuba-bound taxi and get off at the “Water” stage, adjacent to a multi-storey building that houses National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) offices.

Besides NWSC, the building has other offices whose signboards read “PAMI”, “DENA” and “JICO”. Followed by an intense look from the Saracen guard who mans the entrance, I made my way into a sparsely furnished office upstairs. Its occupant was a young lady on a chair with no table or desk. Plugged into her phone with earphones, seemingly scanning radio stations, she was oblivious to my presence.

As I turned to leave, she asked for my receipt to record its number, thinking I had already received “treatment”, which drove me to inquire if I was in the right office – DENA.  
Even nodding in response took her some effort. She pointed to one of the doors.

The offices are divided by wooden partitions. The corridor is a little dark but once in the office, light comes in through the windows. There was a young girl behind an L-shaped table, attending to a male client. She smiled and asked me to wait in the corridor on a plastic chair. A young man carrying a backpack burst into the office but was also told to wait.

From my vantage point, I peeped into an adjacent office, which had classy leather chairs, a red carpet and table. Behind the table was an older woman attending to two men. It was finally my turn but the other client was hesitant to leave. He seemed puzzled and inquired, “Kati gano nkolantya? [What do I do with these?],” he asked, as he examined a pack of tablets.

Looking down as if fed up with his questions, the girl replied: “Just as last time, take one tablet every day.”

The young man, probably in his 20s, pulled a bundle of money from a plastic bag, paid Shs 25, 000 and left. She explained that the young man had returned to complain about the pills not working.

“It sometimes happens. You know these pills act differently on different bodies,” she explained. “I have changed his pills. This time these ones must work.”

At DENA, a dose of penis enlargement pills costs Shs 50,000. It is a set of five tablets for five days, during which one must not drink milk or alcohol.

“For fast growing bodies, we expect change within two weeks but some bodies take as long as a month,” she said.

Wearing a blouse, skirt and black high-heels, the girl did not look like a trained medical practitioner. Without giving away much, she said her boss is a businesswoman who imports the supposedly German-manufactured pills from South Africa. She avoided eye contact, occasionally looking down as I spoke to her. On her table sat a landline phone, which appeared to be out of order, with no wires connecting to it.

Her table also had an unplugged flat computer monitor that seemed more part of the deco than a piece of functional office equipment. A framed licence issued by Kampala City Council hung on the wall.
She paused to answer a call on her mobile phone; to direct another prospective client to their offices.

Although the words on the certificate were too small for me to read, she explained that DENA was licensed five years ago as a herbal solutions company and receives clients daily. As I left the office, there were two nicely dressed girls waiting their turn. I assumed their issues were breast or hip enlargements.

Being reluctant to try out the pills, as I did not know what their side-effects might be, I still wasn’t sure if penis enlargement actually works. I had hoped that the purveyors of the claimed miracle “cure” would point me to successful cases, but the girl at DENA wouldn’t.

Time to explore other options.

Ssenga’s remedy

For every malady, there is a remedy, or so the traditional healers and counsellors claim. When it comes to penis enlargement, Ssenga Mugezza Namuddu on Salaama road’s Kulekana stage is one of those who claim to have the magic solution. Like DENA’s, Namuddu’s adverts in the press have no physical address.

She explained that she deliberately omits the address to avoid disappointing her clients because she never stays in one place for long. This location, for example, is barely two years old, having shifted from Jubilee Park. Namuddu directs her clients through her phone contacts: 0772-380561 or 0773-741019.
Clad in light blue jeans and a flowered light blue blouse, Namuddu’s look was far from the Ssenga I expected.

Her office is a small container by the roadside, with white curtains billowing in the entrance. It looks more like a salon than a consultation room, except for a simple wooden couch with a white cloth and the “Ssenga Mugezza Namuddu” inscription on the wall.

Namuddu, 28, asked me to share the couch with her and she listed her services on a piece of paper: manhood enlargement, premature ejaculation, virginal fluids, among others.
“Can you enlarge a man’s penis?” I asked.

“Yes,” she answered, getting out her wonder drug: a substance extracted from herbs and mixed with petroleum jelly.

The mother of a four-year-old girl explained that the mixture is smeared on the penis, which enlarges after five minutes. It sounded like a case of getting a normal erection due to self-stimulation. Namuddu refused to let go of the concoction unless I parted with Shs 200,000.

So, who pays all this money? The book lying on the couch is full of registered clients. A little spying yields addresses that include Speke hotel, Centenary bank and Entebbe. They are probably fake addresses.

These names also have different amounts of money against them, with some reading as high as Shs 370,000 for manhood enlargement. I later tried one of the clients’ numbers I memorised but when I told the respondent that I needed advice on penis enlargement, “wrong number” was his response.

Namuddu said the herbs she uses came from research by the National Council of Traditional Healers and Herbalists Associations of Uganda (NACOTHA). Like most traditional remedies, it is almost impossible to say whether they work.

Medical experts’ take

Michael O’Leary, a urologist at Harvard medical school, says a lot of time he is asked whether manhood enlargement works. His response: “It is pretty much bunk.”

“After all, if simple, effective penis enlargement were possible, every other guy in America would be a foot long,” O’Leary reckons on men.webmd.com.

Karen Elizabeth Boyle, assistant professor of urology and director of Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, says on the same site:
“Men who have a normal penile length but are convinced they’re small might benefit from seeing a psychiatrist instead of a surgeon.”

While medical experts dismiss penis enlargement pills and herbs as hogwash, they concede that there is at least one thing that works: surgery. Even then, however, the benefits are limited, with nothing more that a one-inch enlargement, at most. Moreover, the procedure is not approved by any professional organisation, costs tens of thousands of dollars, and may lead to scarring, infections, deformation, decrease in sensation, or impotence.

There is no indication that such surgery can be done in Uganda, meaning that an extra-inch may cost you hundreds of millions of shilling in medical bills and travel abroad. It may even be an inch you don’t need, as many studies have shown that men who seek penis enlargement are misinformed about what a normal penis size is and the importance of size to women’s sexual satisfaction.

Dr Vincent Karuhanga of Friends’ Poly Clinic in Kampala sees no need for penis enlargement. He explains that the size of the organ – both length and breadth – does not in any way affect the sexual performance of a man.

“Penis dimensions are in no way connected to sexual satisfaction. It is rather the way you use your penis during intercourse that matters.”

Karuhanga warns of serious repercussions for those in search of a larger penis.
“Penile enlargement involves overstretching of the rather fragile muscles and this can result in drastic side effects such as impotence, acute pain during intercourse and soars.”

He adds: “There is no such thing as a small penis. Small penises can actually perform better than larger ones when properly erect. The reason why our penises appear much smaller than they actually are is because we look at them from above.”

The facts

• Erect penis average length: 13 – 15 cm (5 – 6 inches)
• Flaccid penis average length: 9 – 10 cm (3.5 – 4 inches)
• Erect penis average circumference: 13 cm (5 inches)

• The vagina of a woman who hasn’t had a child is only 7.5cm (3 inches) long when she’s not sexually excited. The figures for women who have had babies are only slightly different.
• Even when aroused, a woman’s vagina usually extends only to a length of about 10cm (about 4 inches).

• However, if a man’s penis is above average, the woman’s vagina can lengthen by 150 or 200 percent to accommodate his manhood, if she is properly aroused.

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Article source: http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16940:penis-enlargement-how-it-works-or-doesnt&catid=39:relationships&Itemid=72

Written by Simon Musasizi

You have probably seen these curious offers along the road in some Kampala suburbs.

“Manhood Enlargement”, “Hips Enlargement”, “Breasts Enlargement”, the posters scream. Our reporter, Simon Musasizi, went to find out…

You have probably seen these curious offers along the road in some Kampala suburbs. “Manhood Enlargement”, “Hips Enlargement”, “Breasts Enlargement”, the posters scream. Below the message is a telephone contact. Even if you are not the kind to consider getting an enlargement job, you have to wonder: does it really work?

Succumbing to journalistic curiosity, I picked up my phone to explore the murky world of penis enlargement. It wasn’t easy finding the once ever-present posters. It looks like the recent police crackdown on the business has left the posters in very few locations.

Still, you can find remnants of these posters in the outskirts; near the Bukoto roundabout, along the northern bypass for instance.  I dialled the number and, to my surprise, I heard a female voice after the first ring. I had thought that it would be engaged because of high demand or switched off following the police crackdown.

“Hello, tukuyambeki ssebo? [How may we help you?],” she asked.
I had expected a fellow man to be dealing with the manhood issue. Then I remembered that the phone number on the poster also handles breast and hip enlargements.

Time to state my problem: I need help enlarging my penis.
“That is simple; come to our offices,” she confidently replied.

She directed me to board a Najjanankumbi or Namasuba-bound taxi and get off at the “Water” stage, adjacent to a multi-storey building that houses National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) offices.

Besides NWSC, the building has other offices whose signboards read “PAMI”, “DENA” and “JICO”. Followed by an intense look from the Saracen guard who mans the entrance, I made my way into a sparsely furnished office upstairs. Its occupant was a young lady on a chair with no table or desk. Plugged into her phone with earphones, seemingly scanning radio stations, she was oblivious to my presence.

As I turned to leave, she asked for my receipt to record its number, thinking I had already received “treatment”, which drove me to inquire if I was in the right office – DENA.  
Even nodding in response took her some effort. She pointed to one of the doors.

The offices are divided by wooden partitions. The corridor is a little dark but once in the office, light comes in through the windows. There was a young girl behind an L-shaped table, attending to a male client. She smiled and asked me to wait in the corridor on a plastic chair. A young man carrying a backpack burst into the office but was also told to wait.

From my vantage point, I peeped into an adjacent office, which had classy leather chairs, a red carpet and table. Behind the table was an older woman attending to two men. It was finally my turn but the other client was hesitant to leave. He seemed puzzled and inquired, “Kati gano nkolantya? [What do I do with these?],” he asked, as he examined a pack of tablets.

Looking down as if fed up with his questions, the girl replied: “Just as last time, take one tablet every day.”

The young man, probably in his 20s, pulled a bundle of money from a plastic bag, paid Shs 25, 000 and left. She explained that the young man had returned to complain about the pills not working.

“It sometimes happens. You know these pills act differently on different bodies,” she explained. “I have changed his pills. This time these ones must work.”

At DENA, a dose of penis enlargement pills costs Shs 50,000. It is a set of five tablets for five days, during which one must not drink milk or alcohol.

“For fast growing bodies, we expect change within two weeks but some bodies take as long as a month,” she said.

Wearing a blouse, skirt and black high-heels, the girl did not look like a trained medical practitioner.
Without giving away much, she said her boss is a businesswoman who imports the supposedly German-manufactured pills from South Africa. She avoided eye contact, occasionally looking down as I spoke to her. On her table sat a landline phone, which appeared to be out of order, with no wires connecting to it.

Her table also had an unplugged flat computer monitor that seemed more part of the deco than a piece of functional office equipment. A framed licence issued by Kampala City Council hung on the wall.
She paused to answer a call on her mobile phone; to direct another prospective client to their offices.

Although the words on the certificate were too small for me to read, she explained that DENA was licensed five years ago as a herbal solutions company and receives clients daily. As I left the office, there were two nicely dressed girls waiting their turn. I assumed their issues were breast or hip enlargements.

Being reluctant to try out the pills, as I did not know what their side-effects might be, I still wasn’t sure if penis enlargement actually works. I had hoped that the purveyors of the claimed miracle “cure” would point me to successful cases, but the girl at DENA wouldn’t.

Time to explore other options.

Ssenga’s remedy

For every malady, there is a remedy, or so the traditional healers and counsellors claim. When it comes to penis enlargement, Ssenga Mugezza Namuddu on Salaama road’s Kulekana stage is one of those who claim to have the magic solution. Like DENA’s, Namuddu’s adverts in the press have no physical address.

She explained that she deliberately omits the address to avoid disappointing her clients because she never stays in one place for long. This location, for example, is barely two years old, having shifted from Jubilee Park. Namuddu directs her clients through her phone contacts: 0772-380561 or 0773-741019.
Clad in light blue jeans and a flowered light blue blouse, Namuddu’s look was far from the Ssenga I expected.

Her office is a small container by the roadside, with white curtains billowing in the entrance. It looks more like a salon than a consultation room, except for a simple wooden couch with a white cloth and the “Ssenga Mugezza Namuddu” inscription on the wall.

Namuddu, 28, asked me to share the couch with her and she listed her services on a piece of paper: manhood enlargement, premature ejaculation, virginal fluids, among others.
“Can you enlarge a man’s penis?” I asked.

“Yes,” she answered, getting out her wonder drug: a substance extracted from herbs and mixed with petroleum jelly.

The mother of a four-year-old girl explained that the mixture is smeared on the penis, which enlarges after five minutes. It sounded like a case of getting a normal erection due to self-stimulation. Namuddu refused to let go of the concoction unless I parted with Shs 200,000.

So, who pays all this money? The book lying on the couch is full of registered clients. A little spying yields addresses that include Speke hotel, Centenary bank and Entebbe. They are probably fake addresses.

These names also have different amounts of money against them, with some reading as high as Shs 370,000 for manhood enlargement. I later tried one of the clients’ numbers I memorised but when I told the respondent that I needed advice on penis enlargement, “wrong number” was his response.

Namuddu said the herbs she uses came from research by the National Council of Traditional Healers and Herbalists Associations of Uganda (NACOTHA). Like most traditional remedies, it is almost impossible to say whether they work.

Medical experts’ take

Michael O’Leary, a urologist at Harvard medical school, says a lot of time he is asked whether manhood enlargement works. His response: “It is pretty much bunk.”

“After all, if simple, effective penis enlargement were possible, every other guy in America would be a foot long,” O’Leary reckons on men.webmd.com.

Karen Elizabeth Boyle, assistant professor of urology and director of Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, says on the same site:
“Men who have a normal penile length but are convinced they’re small might benefit from seeing a psychiatrist instead of a surgeon.”

While medical experts dismiss penis enlargement pills and herbs as hogwash, they concede that there is at least one thing that works: surgery. Even then, however, the benefits are limited, with nothing more that a one-inch enlargement, at most. Moreover, the procedure is not approved by any professional organisation, costs tens of thousands of dollars, and may lead to scarring, infections, deformation, decrease in sensation, or impotence.

There is no indication that such surgery can be done in Uganda, meaning that an extra-inch may cost you hundreds of millions of shilling in medical bills and travel abroad. It may even be an inch you don’t need, as many studies have shown that men who seek penis enlargement are misinformed about what a normal penis size is and the importance of size to women’s sexual satisfaction.

Dr Vincent Karuhanga of Friends’ Poly Clinic in Kampala sees no need for penis enlargement. He explains that the size of the organ – both length and breadth – does not in any way affect the sexual performance of a man.

“Penis dimensions are in no way connected to sexual satisfaction. It is rather the way you use your penis during intercourse that matters.”

Karuhanga warns of serious repercussions for those in search of a larger penis.
“Penile enlargement involves overstretching of the rather fragile muscles and this can result in drastic side effects such as impotence, acute pain during intercourse and soars.”

He adds: “There is no such thing as a small penis. Small penises can actually perform better than larger ones when properly erect. The reason why our penises appear much smaller than they actually are is because we look at them from above.”

The facts

• Erect penis average length: 13 – 15 cm (5 – 6 inches)
• Flaccid penis average length: 9 – 10 cm (3.5 – 4 inches)
• Erect penis average circumference: 13 cm (5 inches)

• The vagina of a woman who hasn’t had a child is only 7.5cm (3 inches) long when she’s not sexually excited. The figures for women who have had babies are only slightly different.
• Even when aroused, a woman’s vagina usually extends only to a length of about 10cm (about 4 inches).

• However, if a man’s penis is above average, the woman’s vagina can lengthen by 150 or 200 percent to accommodate his manhood, if she is properly aroused.

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Article source: http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16940:penis-enlargement-how-it-works--or-doesnt&catid=39:relationships&Itemid=72

The office of plastic surgeon Ignacio Sousa in Caracas is packed. College students in their 20s, housewives in their 40s, middle-class office workers: nearly all are fearful that their breast implants may be leaking.

Thousands of women worldwide are consulting their doctors about health concerns that have sprung up since December due to faulty silicone breast implants made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP. In some cases, the implants filled with industrial-grade silicone have split open, prompting growing demand for their removal.

Babes in Arms in Venezuela?

“It’s like a snowball,” said Sousa, who has been receiving dozens of patients every day since the news broke that French authorities recommended the implants be removed.

The scandal has hit beauty-obsessed Venezuela particularly hard. An estimated 16,000 Venezuelans have the implants, one of the highest figures among Latin American countries, along with much-larger Brazil, where about 20,000 women have PIP-made implants.

Breast enlargement surgery is common in Venezuela and has grown in popularity in recent years among middle-class women, thanks in part to low-interest loans offered by private clinics for the operations.

The PIP brand was used frequently until the implants were pulled from the market in 2010.

Like many of those affected in Venezuela, Sania Arroyo has struggled with the mounting medical bills. The 33-year-old bank employee and single mother managed to save about 20,000 bolivars, or $4,600, for surgery to replace the implants in January, scraping together nearly four times what she paid to have them inserted in 2007.

Former Miss Venezuela Loses Battle with Breast Cancer

She suspected a problem with the implants when she felt a tingling pain under her left breast, and an ultrasound exam confirmed one had ruptured and was leaking silicone into her body.

She said the replacement implants feel more comfortable, but she’s still apprehensive about them.

“I feel so much better now, although I still have the fear something similar could happen again,” Arroyo said, holding a plastic case containing the ruptured implant and the yellowish silicone that leaked out.

PIP’s silicone gel is transparent, but doctors say the substance often turns yellow when it comes in contact with body tissues.

Arroyo is one of 495 Venezuelans who are suing companies that sold the implants, demanding payment of medical costs.

Venezuela’s government offered to remove the implants for free, but many women say they won’t take up the offer because they prefer to have new implants and the government won’t pay for them.

Venezuelan Beauties

French authorities say an estimated 300,000 women have the implants worldwide, including more than 42,000 in Britain, more than 30,000 in France, 9,000 in Australia and 4,000 in Italy.

The implants were never approved for sale in the United States, but tens of thousands of pairs were sold in Latin America. In Colombia, for instance, the association of plastic surgeons says about 14,000 pairs of PIP implants were sold.

On a per-capita basis, Venezuela appears to lead Latin America in the number of breast implants. That’s no surprise to most people in the country, where beauty pageants are a source of national pride and where some teenagers receive implants as birthday presents. Middle-class women sometimes set aside large portions of their salaries for the surgery.

An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 women undergo breast enlargement surgeries in Venezuela each year, and doctors say the numbers have been rising.

“Terror has certainly gripped patients who have the implants, but I don’t believe the desire for breast enlargement surgery is going to diminish,” said Gabriel Obayi, a surgeon who has been answering many emails from women concerned about health risks.

Like most surgeons in Venezuela, Obayi recommends that PIP implants eventually be removed but advises that surgery is not urgent in most cases.

Regardless of the brand, breast implants are known to break down over time and rupture in some cases.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned silicone-gel type implants in 1992 amid fears they might cause cancer, lupus and other diseases. But in 2006 the agency returned the implants to the U.S. market after most studies failed to find a link between silicone breast implants and disease.

Hottest Latinas of 2012 (Sez AskMen.com)

The FDA began an investigation last year into a possible link between implants and a very rare form of cancer, known as anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The agency said it had learned of about 60 cases of the disease worldwide among women with implants.

France’s Health Safety Agency has said the suspect PIP implants appear to be more rupture-prone than other types, but officials have not specified why.

French health authorities have said they don’t know enough about the health effects of the industrial-grade silicone in the faulty implants, and have recommended that women get them removed after the implants ruptured in more than 1,000 cases. The government has agreed to pay for the procedure.

Investigators in France say PIP sought to save money by using industrial silicone rather than the medical-grade variety.

Last week, French authorities filed preliminary charges against PIP’s founder, Jean-Claude Mas, who according to his lawyer is under investigation for “involuntary injury.” His company went into bankruptcy proceedings shortly after the government in 2010 pulled the implants from the market.

The scandal has left many women asking about the risks they may face, and doctors so far have limited answers.

“We don’t know, neither in Venezuela nor Latin America, what percentage of PIP implants rupture,” said Dr. Carlos Nieto, a surgeon and board member of the Venezuelan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

It’s also unclear how many women have had the implants removed so far.

In Argentina, about 300 women are negotiating with private clinics and a local distributor, Pro Estetica, demanding the defective implants be replaced for free, said attorney Virgina Luna, who represents the group.

Jobless Mexicana Flight Attendants Pose for Calendar

Gabriela Febres, a 30-year-old financial analyst in Caracas, has joined the legal case against Venezuelan distributors. She suspects she needs to have surgery soon because her right breast has been hurting for weeks.

“This affects you in so many ways: your job, your finances and your psychological state,” Febres said. “The uncertainty is the worst.”

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

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Article source: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2012/02/02/women-fret-over-implants-line-up-at-doctors-offices/

The office of plastic surgeon Ignacio Sousa is so packed that women are lined up outside the door. College students in their 20s, housewives in their 40s, middle-class office workers: nearly all are fearful that their breast implants may be leaking.

Thousands of women worldwide are consulting their doctors about health concerns that have sprung up since December due to faulty silicone breast implants made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP. In some cases, the implants filled with industrial-grade silicone have split open, prompting growing demand for their removal.

“It’s like a snowball,” said Sousa, who has been receiving dozens of patients every day since the news broke that French authorities recommended the implants be removed.

The scandal has hit beauty-obsessed Venezuela particularly hard. An estimated 16,000 Venezuelans have the implants, one of the highest figures among Latin American countries, along with much-larger Brazil, where about 20,000 women have PIP-made implants.

Breast enlargement surgery is common in Venezuela and has grown in popularity in recent years among middle-class women, thanks in part to low-interest loans offered by private clinics for the operations.

The PIP brand was used frequently until the implants were pulled from the market in 2010.

Like many of those affected in Venezuela, Sania Arroyo has struggled with the mounting medical bills. The 33-year-old bank employee and single mother managed to save about 20,000 bolivars, or $4,600, for surgery to replace the implants in January, scraping together nearly four times what she paid to have them inserted in 2007.

She suspected a problem with the implants when she felt a tingling pain under her left breast, and an ultrasound exam confirmed one had ruptured and was leaking silicone into her body.

She said the replacement implants feel more comfortable, but she’s still apprehensive about them.

“I feel so much better now, although I still have the fear something similar could happen again,” Arroyo said, holding a plastic case containing the ruptured implant and the yellowish silicone that leaked out.

PIP’s silicone gel is transparent, but doctors say the substance often turns yellow when it comes in contact with body tissues.

Arroyo is one of 495 Venezuelans who are suing companies that sold the implants, demanding payment of medical costs.

Venezuela’s government offered to remove the implants for free, but many women say they won’t take up the offer because they prefer to have new implants and the government won’t pay for them.

French authorities say an estimated 300,000 women have the implants worldwide, including more than 42,000 in Britain, more than 30,000 in France, 9,000 in Australia and 4,000 in Italy.

The implants were never approved for sale in the United States, but tens of thousands of pairs were sold in Latin America. In Colombia, for instance, the association of plastic surgeons says about 14,000 pairs of PIP implants were sold.

On a per-capita basis, Venezuela appears to lead Latin America in the number of breast implants. That’s no surprise to most people in the country, where beauty pageants are a source of national pride and where some teenagers receive implants as birthday presents. Middle-class women sometimes set aside large portions of their salaries for the surgery.

An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 women undergo breast enlargement surgeries in Venezuela each year, and doctors say the numbers have been rising.

“Terror has certainly gripped patients who have the implants, but I don’t believe the desire for breast enlargement surgery is going to diminish,” said Gabriel Obayi, a surgeon who has been answering many emails from women concerned about health risks.

Like most surgeons in Venezuela, Obayi recommends that PIP implants eventually be removed but advises that surgery is not urgent in most cases.

Regardless of the brand, breast implants are known to break down over time and rupture in some cases.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned silicone-gel type implants in 1992 amid fears they might cause cancer, lupus and other diseases. But in 2006 the agency returned the implants to the U.S. market after most studies failed to find a link between silicone breast implants and disease.

The FDA began an investigation last year into a possible link between implants and a very rare form of cancer, known as anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The agency said it had learned of about 60 cases of the disease worldwide among women with implants.

France’s Health Safety Agency has said the suspect PIP implants appear to be more rupture-prone than other types, but officials have not specified why.

French health authorities have said they don’t know enough about the health effects of the industrial-grade silicone in the faulty implants, and have recommended that women get them removed after the implants ruptured in more than 1,000 cases. The government has agreed to pay for the procedure.

Investigators in France say PIP sought to save money by using industrial silicone rather than the medical-grade variety.

Last week, French authorities filed preliminary charges against PIP’s founder, Jean-Claude Mas, who according to his lawyer is under investigation for “involuntary injury.” His company went into bankruptcy proceedings shortly after the government in 2010 pulled the implants from the market.

The scandal has left many women asking about the risks they may face, and doctors so far have limited answers.

“We don’t know, neither in Venezuela nor Latin America, what percentage of PIP implants rupture,” said Dr. Carlos Nieto, a surgeon and board member of the Venezuelan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

It’s also unclear how many women have had the implants removed so far.

In Argentina, about 300 women are negotiating with private clinics and a local distributor, Pro Estetica, demanding the defective implants be replaced for free, said attorney Virgina Luna, who represents the group.

Gabriela Febres, a 30-year-old financial analyst in Caracas, has joined the legal case against Venezuelan distributors. She suspects she needs to have surgery soon because her right breast has been hurting for weeks.

“This affects you in so many ways: your job, your finances and your psychological state,” Febres said. “The uncertainty is the worst.”

Article source: http://www.carmitimes.com/topstories/x1622351794/Women-line-up-to-switch-breast-implants

Thousands of women worldwide are consulting their doctors about health concerns that have sprung up since December due to faulty silicone breast implants made by the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP. In some cases, the implants filled with industrial-grade silicone have split open, prompting growing demand for their removal.

“It’s like a snowball,” said Sousa, who has been receiving dozens of patients every day since the news broke that French authorities recommended the implants be removed.

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The scandal has hit beauty-obsessed Venezuela particularly hard. An estimated 16,000 Venezuelans have the implants, one of the highest figures among Latin American countries, along with much-larger Brazil, where about 20,000 women have PIP-made implants.

Breast enlargement surgery is common in Venezuela and has grown in popularity in recent years among middle-class women, thanks in part to low-interest loans offered by private clinics for the operations.

The PIP brand was used frequently until the implants were pulled from the market in 2010.

Like many of those affected in Venezuela, Sania Arroyo has struggled with the mounting medical bills. The 33-year-old bank employee and single mother managed to save about 20,000 bolivars, or $4,600, for surgery to replace the implants in January, scraping together nearly four times what she paid to have them inserted in 2007.

She suspected a problem with the implants when she felt a tingling pain under her left breast, and an ultrasound exam confirmed one had ruptured and was leaking silicone into her body.

She said the replacement implants feel more comfortable, but she’s still apprehensive about them.

“I feel so much better now, although I still have the fear something similar could happen again,” Arroyo said, holding a plastic case containing the ruptured implant and the yellowish silicone that leaked out.

PIP’s silicone gel is transparent, but doctors say the substance often turns yellow when it comes in contact with body tissues.

Arroyo is one of 495 Venezuelans who are suing companies that sold the implants, demanding payment of medical costs.

Venezuela’s government offered to remove the implants for free, but many women say they won’t take up the offer because they prefer to have new implants and the government won’t pay for them.

French authorities say an estimated 300,000 women have the implants worldwide, including more than 42,000 in Britain, more than 30,000 in France, 9,000 in Australia and 4,000 in Italy.

The implants were never approved for sale in the United States, but tens of thousands of pairs were sold in Latin America. In Colombia, for instance, the association of plastic surgeons says about 14,000 pairs of PIP implants were sold.

On a per-capita basis, Venezuela appears to lead Latin America in the number of breast implants. That’s no surprise to most people in the country, where beauty pageants are a source of national pride and where some teenagers receive implants as birthday presents. Middle-class women sometimes set aside large portions of their salaries for the surgery.

An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 women undergo breast enlargement surgeries in Venezuela each year, and doctors say the numbers have been rising.

“Terror has certainly gripped patients who have the implants, but I don’t believe the desire for breast enlargement surgery is going to diminish,” said Gabriel Obayi, a surgeon who has been answering many emails from women concerned about health risks.

Like most surgeons in Venezuela, Obayi recommends that PIP implants eventually be removed but advises that surgery is not urgent in most cases.

Regardless of the brand, breast implants are known to break down over time and rupture in some cases.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned silicone-gel type implants in 1992 amid fears they might cause cancer, lupus and other diseases. But in 2006 the agency returned the implants to the U.S. market after most studies failed to find a link between silicone breast implants and disease.

The FDA began an investigation last year into a possible link between implants and a very rare form of cancer, known as anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The agency said it had learned of about 60 cases of the disease worldwide among women with implants.

France’s Health Safety Agency has said the suspect PIP implants appear to be more rupture-prone than other types, but officials have not specified why.

French health authorities have said they don’t know enough about the health effects of the industrial-grade silicone in the faulty implants, and have recommended that women get them removed after the implants ruptured in more than 1,000 cases. The government has agreed to pay for the procedure.

Investigators in France say PIP sought to save money by using industrial silicone rather than the medical-grade variety.

Last week, French authorities filed preliminary charges against PIP’s founder, Jean-Claude Mas, who according to his lawyer is under investigation for “involuntary injury.” His company went into bankruptcy proceedings shortly after the government in 2010 pulled the implants from the market.

The scandal has left many women asking about the risks they may face, and doctors so far have limited answers.

“We don’t know, neither in Venezuela nor Latin America, what percentage of PIP implants rupture,” said Dr. Carlos Nieto, a surgeon and board member of the Venezuelan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

It’s also unclear how many women have had the implants removed so far.

In Argentina, about 300 women are negotiating with private clinics and a local distributor, Pro Estetica, demanding the defective implants be replaced for free, said attorney Virgina Luna, who represents the group.

Gabriela Febres, a 30-year-old financial analyst in Caracas, has joined the legal case against Venezuelan distributors. She suspects she needs to have surgery soon because her right breast has been hurting for weeks.

“This affects you in so many ways: your job, your finances and your psychological state,” Febres said. “The uncertainty is the worst.”

—-

Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Cesar Garcia in Bogota, Colombia, and Angela Charlton and Jamey Keaten in Paris, as well as AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.

—

Christopher Toothaker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ctoothaker

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Article source: http://www.longislandpress.com/2012/01/31/venezuelans-line-up-to-switch-pip-breast-implants/