What You Need To Know About Surgical GLP-1 Makeovers

The explosion of GLP-1 weight-loss medications has created massive demand for plastic surgery procedures – including contouring and facial fat grafting – that help people better manage their rapidly changing bodies.

But there are several factors to keep in mind:

• Pausing weight-loss meds before surgery
• Waiting until your weight loss is stable before having a procedure
• Deciding type of surgery you want

Why You Must Stop GLP-1 Weight-Loss Meds Before Surgery

To understand why the delay is needed, consider how these various weight-loss drugs work on your body. First, the medications trigger the part of your brain telling you that you are full and satisfied. But there is another component that slows your digestion, so that food takes longer to leave your stomach. Instead of emptying in a couple of hours, it could take up to six hours before your stomach is clear.

That’s great for your feelings of fullness, but it also represents a potential problem if you are put under general anesthesia. It increases the risk that partially digested food could travel back from your stomach, through your esophagus and – in a worst-case scenario – into your lungs.

If that happens, it could lead to aspiration pneumonia, a potentially serious bacterial infection caused by inhaling something other than air into your lungs. The condition, whose symptoms include fever and coughing up blood or pus, can be fatal.

Fortunately, the need to be cautious doesn’t mean you have to stop taking your medications for a lengthy period. For most people, a one-week pause before surgery is all that’s needed. That time may be extended for people with conditions such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which already creates extra risks. And once the procedures are over, you can resume your medications.

It’s also interesting to note that this precaution isn’t limited to plastic surgery procedures. For any procedure – colonoscopies for example – that use general anesthesia, there will be risks related to GLP-1 medications. That makes it very important for you to be honest with your surgeon if you are taking these drugs.

What Is an 'Ozempic Makeover' for Body Contouring?

Body contouring, or sculpting, has been a part of plastic surgery from the start. It has long been popular with women, in particular, who want to remove fat, tighten skin and reshape their physical appearance. Among the more popular examples of this is the so-called “mommy makeover,” a set of procedures that refine the breasts and abdomen after childbirth.

These techniques have also been used for patients who achieved substantial weight loss through surgical procedures such as the gastric sleeve, which removes a large portion of the stomach. Today, however, weight loss is much easier to achieve with the GLP-1 type medications.

As a result, the mommy makeover is rapidly being replaced by the “Ozempic makeover,” named for one of the weight-loss medications. The challenge facing some users is that they are left with a lot of excess skin that won’t go away on its own. The loss of fat can also affect your face, which may appear older, with sunken cheeks and wrinkles.

How Long Should Your Weight Be Stable Before Plastic Surgery?

Before even considering plastic surgery options, make sure your weight loss is stable. The GLP-1 medications work slowly over time but eventually plateau. For body contouring, once you have reached a stable weight, give it another three to six months before having any procedures performed. It’s fine if your weight is up or down five pounds. But if it’s fluctuating by 10 or 20 pounds, you will be better off waiting longer.

The Most Common Plastic Surgery Procedures After Weight Loss

After you are ready, there are several options available, depending on how your body responds and which areas you want to address. Among the procedures:

• Tummy tuck: The procedure can remove excess skin around your abdomen.
• Arm lift: Also known as brachioplasty, it reshapes the region from your elbow to your armpit, removing sagging skin and tightening the underlying tissue.
• Breast lift/augmentation: A breast lift raises the breasts, removes excess skin and tightens the surrounding tissues. An augmentation uses implants or fat transfer to reshape the breasts.
• Facial fat grafting: Your face is reshaped by injecting fat, harvested from your own body, into the areas impacted by the weight loss.

This content is not AI generated.