'Ozempic made our arms, bums and legs look like MELTED CANDLES': the terrifying new side effects rapidly emerging in young people taking weight-loss drugs

World-leading integrative surgeons are reporting a immense surge successful patients demanding utmost and ‘dangerous’ cosmetic operations – aft losing melodramatic amounts of value connected slimming jabs specified arsenic Ozempic.

The wellness benefits of the jabs are far-reaching – not lone bash obese patients shed pounds but studies amusement the drugs assistance slash the hazard of bosom disease, cancer and tin adjacent boost fertility. But little talked-about are the assemblage problems they are often near with.

On societal media, users of Ozempic and akin drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro kick they are near with sunken, hollow-looking faces; hanging ‘melted candle’ tegument connected their arms, legs and stomachs; ‘empty’ breasts and sagging buttocks.

These assemblage problems are not a broadside effect of the medicine – glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, oregon GLP-1s – but a effect of massive, accelerated weight loss.

While abdominous tissues shrink away, the tegument – which has go stretched implicit clip – doesn’t simply drawback back. And, successful a bid to tackle the issue, cosmetic surgeons are rapidly refining their techniques successful bid to connection fixes.

I got to perceive each astir it past week, erstwhile I attended the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery yearly gathering past week successful Austin – the world’s largest manufacture lawsuit showcasing what the aboriginal holds for a satellite bare for cosmetic surgery. It’s not unfastened to the public, but I was fixed unprecedented entree – and the doctors I spoke to were frank astir the interaction weight-loss jabs person had.

‘GLP-1s are a caller gateway cause for aesthetics – we’ve had an Ozempification,’ Dr Johnny Franco, an Austin-based advisor integrative surgeon, tells me. ‘We are seeing a full caller sub-group of patients with tegument issues astatine a precise young age.’

Some enterprising surgeons, I discovered, person adjacent launched their ain weight-loss jab clinics, prescribing the drugs to cosmetic country hopefuls.

‘These medicines person changed everything for us,’ Kentucky-based cosmetic surgeon Dr Bradley Calobrace adds. ‘When I spot a diligent who is overweight, perchance excessively dense to person the procedures they want, I utilized to say, “We request to get you astatine a amended weight, I’ll spot you backmost if you do.” And you ne'er spot them again. But present we person a programme, a solution.’

However, these operations – which are rarely, if ever, offered connected the NHS – are not for the faint-hearted. From boob, bottommost and adjacent limb and interior thigh lifts to chin-contouring and tummy tucks these are large procedures with sizeable risks.

And this, experts say, is wherefore it’s captious patients opt for experienced surgeons – who truly cognize what they’re doing – to execute them.

Here, we outline conscionable a fewer of the newest techniques to tackle post-Ozempic faces and bodies...

There's a no-knife hole for Ozempic face 

It is the astir disposable and loathed downside of accelerated weight-loss connected the jabs: the improvement dubbed ‘Ozempic face’.

Patients slim down dramatically, but are near looking aged – with sunken eyes, gaunt cheeks, jowls and hollow temples.

Even those successful their 30s and 40s are affected. In immoderate cases, lone a afloat look and cervix assistance volition beryllium capable to acceptable things right, surgeons say. But a big of non-invasive treatments, showcased past week, could help.

One improvement generating excitement involves injections of donated quality fat.

While this sounds somewhat grim, experts accidental the insubstantial is purified and processed to signifier a ‘matrix’ – erstwhile wrong the face, it acts arsenic a scaffold that encourages the assemblage to physique its ain abdominous successful the treated area.

This works to gradually reconstruct measurement – portion avoiding the doughy ‘pillow face’ look associated with older cosmetic fillers. It is undoubtedly a softer enactment than a look lift. But these fixes, utilizing what is known arsenic biostimulatory products, are not easy reversible, underscoring the value of uncovering a vetted and experienced injector, the experts say.

Dr Nora Nugent, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), adds: ‘If you person a batch of biostimulatory oregon energy-based instrumentality treatments [using heat, dependable waves oregon airy to amended appearance], it does make scar insubstantial successful the deeper layers of the skin, making facelifts trickier from a method and a hazard perspective.’

Perfect pick-me-up for droopy busts

Another deflating disadvantage of the jabs is terrible sagging oregon shrinkage of the breasts. Most surgeons I spoke to said they were seeing an uptick successful recently slim patients asking for bust-enhancing country – though they contiguous challenges.

‘With these patients who suffer value highly rapidly the bosom tegument tin beryllium precise bladed and loose,’ says Dr Josh Waltzman, an LA-based integrative surgeon. ‘This means we person to dainty them otherwise to regular patients.’

One enactment is an cognition called a mastopexy – a bosom assistance – with GalaFLEX mesh. Referred to arsenic ‘an interior bra’, this mesh is implanted during the op to supply further enactment and reenforce the tissue, helping support shape. It tin beryllium done with oregon without a modular size-enhancing bosom augmentation.

‘We person to bash this, different the breasts whitethorn extremity up stretching again,’ adds Dr Waltzman.

Other assistance enactment aft monolithic value nonaccomplishment is simply a op known arsenic a dermal suspension mastopexy with parenchymal reshaping. Instead of mesh, the patient’s ain removed excess tegument is repurposed to make an interior sling, which provides support.

The underlying bosom insubstantial is besides reshaped, nevertheless this is simply a large cognition with a 20-fold higher complaint of complications than a modular bosom augmentation.

‘This process is perfect if determination is simply a batch of drooping,’ says Dr David Turer, a integrative surgeon successful Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Breast lifts are seldom standalone integrative country procedures among GLP-1 patients who person rapidly shed pounds, but often ‘a bully starting point’, helium adds: ‘We volition often bash a bosom assistance first, but galore of these patients volition spell connected to person aggregate procedures to close different areas of the body.’ 

Tummy tucks are nary locomotion successful the park

Skin changes aren’t conscionable constricted to the face, breasts and bottommost – they’re showing up connected the arms, legs and stomachs too.

While patients are often distressed astatine being near with bodies ‘like a melted candle’, these issues aren’t simply cosmetic. Folds of tegument tin hinder question and are astatine hazard of chafing – starring to sores and infections which tin beryllium serious.

‘Tackling excess tegument connected the abdomen is the fig 1 post-GLP-1 process we do,’ Dr Waltzman says. ‘The abdominous goes away, yet the tegument doesn’t ever shrink back.’

The reply is an abdominoplasty – oregon tummy tuck – which involves surgically removing excess tegument and abdominous from the abdominal area, portion tightening the underlying abdominal muscle.

Similar operations tin trim distant excess tegument from the under-arms and interior thighs. And past determination is the notorious ‘body lift’ – besides known arsenic a circumferential assemblage lift, successful which immoderate oregon each of these procedures are combined successful a azygous large cognition costing up to £35,000.

UK-based advisor integrative surgeon Patrick Mallucci warns: ‘These are the astir unsafe operations we transportation out.

‘There’s a precocious hazard of venous thrombosis, erstwhile a humor clot forms successful a vein, perchance blocking humor flow. This tin beryllium life-threatening if near untreated.’

Finding an experienced surgeon is vital, helium adds: ‘You shouldn’t beryllium scrimping and redeeming connected a attraction similar this.’

Definitely don't opt for the dreaded BBL

Alongside Ozempic look and Ozempic breasts, there’s besides Ozempic butt – a deflated, saggy backside.

The answer? Not a Brazilian butt lift, accidental experts. The procedure, besides known arsenic a BBL, involves taking abdominous from the hips, abdomen and different areas via liposuction, earlier injecting it into the bottom.

The effect is simply a bigger, much pert down – theoretically astatine least.

But women undergoing BBLs person a 1 successful 4,000 accidental of dying pursuing the process – making it the deadliest of each cosmetic surgeries.

This is due to the fact that abdominous injected into dense buttock musculus does not enactment there. Instead, the liquid squeezes done the musculus fibres, stretching delicate humor vessels and causing them to rupture.

The process could besides permission Ozempic patients’ bottoms looking adjacent worse, doctors told me.

Cosmetic surgeon Dr Franco says: ‘Filling isn’t ever the mode to combat tegument laxity issues. Like an overdone breast, if you’ve conscionable created a butt that is excessively big, truthful it volition sag again implicit time.’

Instead, GLP-1 weight-loss patients whitethorn payment from a modular buttock assistance – which involves removing excess tegument and repositioning muscle. Non-surgical treatments see radiofrequency microneedling – a attraction that transmits vigor done good needles into the skin, helping to tighten it.

A blast of vigor that firms the skin

Cosmetic instrumentality manufacturers were besides hard astatine enactment past week, unveiling caller machines that, they claimed, could connection speedy fixes to GLP-1 patients – and spare them from going nether the knife.

‘People connected the jabs are by acold our biggest people market,’ says 1 institution rep.

Among the innovations showing committedness are Sofwave, a instrumentality that has been shown to amended tegument laxity and assistance and code the look and neck. It emits ultrasound vigor which creates heat, stimulating accumulation of collagen and elastin – proteins that assistance support the tegument steadfast and supple.

Another fashionable machine, Renuvion, involves a unsocial benignant of vigor which its manufacturers telephone J Plasma – a heated helium state – to tighten escaped skin.

Mr Mallucci says they began utilizing Renuvion ‘around six months agone and we’ve seen a immense summation successful demand’, adding: ‘A batch of patients connected Ozempic travel due to the fact that they’ve present got a bully fig but immoderate tegument laxity, which isn’t needfully atrocious capable to dainty with surgery.’

Experts, however, cautioned that the borderline for mistake is tiny – and successful the UK determination is small regularisation implicit who tin usage specified machines. In the incorrect hands the ‘results could beryllium disastrous’, says Marc Pacifico, UK integrative surgeon and erstwhile BAAPS president. ‘Heat-producing devices, including skin-tightening devices, could origin burns and a big of different complications.’