Surgeons are seeing more men in their plastic surgery clinics, and the most popular procedures require liposuction and fat grafting. As a matter of fact, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports, “In the last five years, liposuction among men has risen 23%, tummy tucks are up by 12%, and gynecomastia by 30%.”
Several other cosmetic surgeries are popular among men too, such as facial and body etching, gender reassignment surgery, and even buttock augmentation. These trends mean surgeons will face new challenges as they aim to give their male patients the aesthetic outcomes they desire.
Large Volume Fat Removal
Large volume fat removal is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures among men, particularly on the chest, flanks, abdomen, chest, and back. Several factors have contributed to increased demand for liposuction among men.
Increased obesity among men is one of the reasons surgeons are seeing more men in their surgical rooms for large volume liposuction. Moreover, liposuction on the obese has become safer as technology has advanced.
As men age, it’s harder to get rid of excess fat no matter how often they exercise or how well they eat. This has led men ages 50 and older to seek large volume liposuction to remove stubborn fat. In addition, men feel more pressure to look younger and fitter to compete for jobs and partners.
Liposuction on men is often more laborious on the surgeon because they have tough, fibrous tissue on their chest and back unlike women. As a result, surgeons will need versatile and strong liposuction devices that make surgery less fatiguing.
Abdomen and Chest Etching
Abdomen and chest etching are the new body contouring procedures for men. As many surgeons are finding out, it’s a form of finesse liposuction and takes a special approach.
Body sculpting are in high demand among men who struggle to build their abdomen and pectoral muscles even when they weight train. It is common to remove both deep fat and superficial fat to shape your male patient’s pectorals and abdomen.
Pectoral and abdominal etching are also popular procedures for body builders and gym-goers who want their muscles to have more definition. This often entails removing small volumes of fat, which is becoming just as common as large volume removal.
Surgeons will likely find themselves combining techniques such as pectoral implants and lipofilling as it proves to deliver more natural and pleasing aesthetics.
Neck Lifts and Facial Contouring
Liposuction and lipofilling are trending procedures to sculpt the face and neck. Fat cells are increasingly used in replace of cosmetic injections because they deliver permanent and often safer results than synthetic fillers.
Men in particular want slimmer faces with more prominent cheekbones and chins, which has led to removing fat from the neck and under the chin as well as fat grafts to the face for shaping and sculpting.
Furthermore, chin and cheek implant surgeries have continued to rise among men according to the ASPS’ 2017 Plastic Surgery Report and their 2018 report. In 2017, 8,717 men received chin augmentation, and 9,583 men in 2018. In recent years, surgeons have combined lipofilling with implants to achieve more authentic looking results.
Gender Reassignment Surgery
Whether your patient is a transwoman or transman, gender reassignment surgery is on the rise. For a person transitioning into a man, it means the surgeon will have to debulk in areas like the chest, thighs, hips, and stomach to give their client the lean, muscular that is common among men. Meanwhile, surgery for a person transitioning into a woman requires more body contouring to give them naturally curvy hips, breasts, and thighs.
Surgeons are increasingly challenged to develop specialized techniques that shape their patient’s body and produce a better version of themselves. These kinds of surgeries take longer and often require careful removal and placement of fat. This is particularly true for those who are transitioning as surgery means embracing the person they have envisioned for years.
Surgery on these patients can also be riskier and more difficult since it often takes several procedures to achieve the best aesthetic outcomes.
Gynecomastia Surgery
Large breast in men occur for several reasons, such as “genetics and the use of certain medications, and it is estimated that up to 50% of men in the United States experience some degree of gynecomastia during their lifetime,” states the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’s 2018 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report, male breast reduction surgery has increased 22% between 2018 and 2000. The male chest is one of the areas that consist of tough, fibrous tissue that can be hard to move through during liposuction if the surgeon doesn’t have a powerful device.
Calf Augmentation with Fat Grafting
Calf augmentation has been a common cosmetic surgery for several years. Traditionally, calf augmentation was performed with implants, but fat grafting could emerge as a better option for enhancing your patients calves.
According to a case study in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal on fat grafting for calf augmentation:
Autologous fat augmentation offers a number of advantages over calf implants, including liposuction in adjacent areas to improve calf contour, smaller incisions, additional augmentation through subsequent fat grafting, durable results, lack of foreign body reaction, and precise patient-specific adjustments not possible with off-the shelf implants.
Fat grafting has surged in the liposuction industry as an alternative to many other surgeries where implants were previously utilized.
Buttock Lift and Augmentation
It may come as a shock to the general public that men are getting butt lifts and butt augmentation, but many surgeons have reported an incline in men requesting this procedure. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ 2017 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report shows 354 received a butt lift and 370 men received a butt lift the next year according to the ASPS’ 2018 report.
Fat grafting is quickly becoming part of a buttock augmentation and buttlifts as surgeons learn the most natural looking outcomes are achieved through pairing implants and plastic surgery with lipofillling.
The Recap
Cosmetic surgery is no longer reserved for just women. Although they make up the largest population of people who get plastic surgery, the number of men who have cosmetic work done is making up a larger portion of the population every year.
In the coming years, surgeons can expect to see more men in their clinics for body and facial sculpting to make them look more athletic or to enhance their athletic build. They will also see more specialized surgeries and procedures that focus on smaller areas of the body.
At Möller Medical, we encourage innovation in the medical industry by engineering medical devices that revolutionize the way healthcare professionals approach efficiency and efficacy. We invite you to contact us today, so one of our agents can tell you how our full suite of liposuction devices can help you give your male patients the aesthetic results they desire.
