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Woman's Own - Plastic Surgery Special, 2004
To most women, it would seem Sefi Munoz had it all: a career as a tennis coach, with a winning body to match, and her fair share of male admirers. Yet Sefi was deeply unhappy. “I hated my breasts and longed for implants”, she recalls. “My breasts were beautiful until my late teens, but because I’d played tennis, they’d suffered horrendously. All that running around on a hard court had really taken its tall. Even with the support of a sports bra, my breasts had ended up droopy and covered in stretch marks. By the time I was 28 they just hung like two empty sacs and I couldn’t bear to see my reflection in a mirror. I knew a boob job was my only option.”
It was to prove a disastrous decision. Two painful operations and countless consultations later, Sefi has finally got the breasts she’d always dreamed about. But it has cost her dearly.
“I made the ultimate mistake of trying to do it on the cheap when I should have known better. Sefi, now 32, admits “I ended up with painful, mismatched boobs which totally robbed me of my self – esteem.”
Sefi, who grew up in Seville, Spain, had come to London in 1997 to study English and dance. She financed her course with waitressing jobs, and money was tight.
“For almost a decade I’d wanted a boob job, but there was never any money spare”, she explains. “Then my grandmother died and left me £2,000 in her will. I knew precisely what I was going to do with it.”
“I saw three different cosmetic surgeons in London and they quoted me between £3,000 and £3,500 for implants. Even with my savings, I didn’t have nearly enough.”
Then, through a friend, Sefi heard about a plastic surgeon in Alicante, Spain, who could perform the operation at a discounted price. “My friend’s mother had had a nose job and a couple of her friends had had implants and they were all perfectly happy.
He charged around £1,800 for implants. I could fly to Alicante, have the operation, stay with my friend and recuperate in the sun. What could be better?”
After a series of telephone calls to the surgeon, Sefi flew out to meet him. “I liked him immediately”, she recalls. “He was really sympathetic. He told me I could have silicone implants which would take me from an “empty”34B to my original 34C. I stressed I wanted firmer, natural-looking breasts, not huge balloons.
“He explained that all anaesthetics carry a degree of risk but, apart from that there wouldn’t be any problems. It all seemed so straightforward, and I had total confidence in him”.
Two days later, Sefi had the operation in a private hospital in Alicante. Once the initial swelling had gone down, she was thrilled with her new breasts. “They were exactly as he’d described them. They were really beautiful.”
A delighted Sefi flew back to London. “I went back to see the surgeon twice before I left – once to have the stitches taken out and again for a check-up. There was no hint of what was to come.”
Eight months later Sefi was mortified to find her left breast had gone rock-hard. “It was like a big wooden ball, totally solid, and looked completely different to the right one.” Alarmed, Sefi immediately rang her surgeon in Spain. “He said it was probably just a hormonal problem and suggested I wait a few weeks for thing to settle down before calling him again.”
When things didn’t improve, a frightened Sefi went along to her local A&E department in South London. There, a doctor didn’t even try to hide his disgust. I’d waited for five hours, and when I finally saw him, the doctor took one look at my misshapen breasts and said, “If you want to put implants in your body, that’s your problem. I’m here to save lives.” I just burst into tears. I was terrified that my boobs would never look normal again.
It was a similar story at the next hospital, where doctors where equally dismissive. “I went to six different hospitals, every one was the same”, says Sefi. In desperation, she scraped together her air fare and flew back to Spain.
The surgeon who had performed my operation told me I was suffering from encapsulation, where excess tissue had built up around the implant causing it to harden.
“He then tried to massage the implant by hand in an effort to break the tissue “capsule”. He tried a few times, but in the end I had to ask him to stop – it was just too painful.”
The surgeon then said he head to reopen Sefi’s scar to remove part of the hardened tissue. This was done in his office, under a local anaesthetic.
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Plastic surgery real life
"My breast looked
like a huge wooden ball"
To most women, it would seem Sefi Munoz had it all: a career as a tennis coach, with a winning body to match, and her fair share of male admirers. Yet Sefi was deeply unhappy. “I hated my breasts and longed for implants”, she recalls. “My breasts were beautiful until my late teens, but because I’d played tennis, they’d suffered horrendously. All that running around on a hard court had really taken its tall. Even with the support of a sports bra, my breasts had ended up droopy and covered in stretch marks. By the time I was 28 they just hung like two empty sacs and I couldn’t bear to see my reflection in a mirror. I knew a boob job was my only option.”
It was to prove a disastrous decision. Two painful operations and countless consultations later, Sefi has finally got the breasts she’d always dreamed about. But it has cost her dearly.
“I made the ultimate mistake of trying to do it on the cheap when I should have known better. Sefi, now 32, admits “I ended up with painful, mismatched boobs which totally robbed me of my self – esteem.”
Sefi, who grew up in Seville, Spain, had come to London in 1997 to study English and dance. She financed her course with waitressing jobs, and money was tight.
“For almost a decade I’d wanted a boob job, but there was never any money spare”, she explains. “Then my grandmother died and left me £2,000 in her will. I knew precisely what I was going to do with it.”
“I saw three different cosmetic surgeons in London and they quoted me between £3,000 and £3,500 for implants. Even with my savings, I didn’t have nearly enough.”
Then, through a friend, Sefi heard about a plastic surgeon in Alicante, Spain, who could perform the operation at a discounted price. “My friend’s mother had had a nose job and a couple of her friends had had implants and they were all perfectly happy.
He charged around £1,800 for implants. I could fly to Alicante, have the operation, stay with my friend and recuperate in the sun. What could be better?”
After a series of telephone calls to the surgeon, Sefi flew out to meet him. “I liked him immediately”, she recalls. “He was really sympathetic. He told me I could have silicone implants which would take me from an “empty”34B to my original 34C. I stressed I wanted firmer, natural-looking breasts, not huge balloons.
“He explained that all anaesthetics carry a degree of risk but, apart from that there wouldn’t be any problems. It all seemed so straightforward, and I had total confidence in him”.
Two days later, Sefi had the operation in a private hospital in Alicante. Once the initial swelling had gone down, she was thrilled with her new breasts. “They were exactly as he’d described them. They were really beautiful.”
A delighted Sefi flew back to London. “I went back to see the surgeon twice before I left – once to have the stitches taken out and again for a check-up. There was no hint of what was to come.”
Eight months later Sefi was mortified to find her left breast had gone rock-hard. “It was like a big wooden ball, totally solid, and looked completely different to the right one.” Alarmed, Sefi immediately rang her surgeon in Spain. “He said it was probably just a hormonal problem and suggested I wait a few weeks for thing to settle down before calling him again.”
When things didn’t improve, a frightened Sefi went along to her local A&E department in South London. There, a doctor didn’t even try to hide his disgust. I’d waited for five hours, and when I finally saw him, the doctor took one look at my misshapen breasts and said, “If you want to put implants in your body, that’s your problem. I’m here to save lives.” I just burst into tears. I was terrified that my boobs would never look normal again.
It was a similar story at the next hospital, where doctors where equally dismissive. “I went to six different hospitals, every one was the same”, says Sefi. In desperation, she scraped together her air fare and flew back to Spain.
The surgeon who had performed my operation told me I was suffering from encapsulation, where excess tissue had built up around the implant causing it to harden.
“He then tried to massage the implant by hand in an effort to break the tissue “capsule”. He tried a few times, but in the end I had to ask him to stop – it was just too painful.”
The surgeon then said he head to reopen Sefi’s scar to remove part of the hardened tissue. This was done in his office, under a local anaesthetic.
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