BRYONY GORDON: Women are dying from weight-loss jabs and Brazilian butt lifts… and I know why

What price perfection? It’s a question I ask every time I read another tragic story about a woman who is flown abroad for cosmetic surgery, only to be returned in a body bag.

In the past week there have been two separate investigations into the deaths of British women who went to Turkey for the purpose of ‘health tourism’ – a terribly euphemistic and misleading term to describe the practice of going abroad for operations that you cannot imagine afford (or shouldn’t) in your own country.

Photos by Hayley Dowell show a smiling, beautiful young woman with everything to live for. She was only 38 when she traveled to Istanbul last October for a tummy tuck, liposuction and a Brazilian Butt Lift, or BBL as it is even more casually known. The BBL involves removing fat from one part of the body and then transferring it to the buttocks – the idea, apparently, is to ultimately look a little more like Kim Kardashian or JLo.

It is the fastest growing cosmetic procedure in the world, but also the most dangerous: one in 4,000 procedures leads to death. It is so risky that the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has advised its members in the past not to do it.

Tragically, Dowell suffered an embolism after the £7,000 operation. “There was no risk presented to her,” said Dowell’s husband Neil, who had accompanied her to Turkey. “It was supposed to be a six-hour operation, but it ended up being one hour and forty-five [minutes]. The surgeon left halfway through and let the anesthesiologist do the work.”

He added that the company only asked him to sign his wife’s consent forms after she died.

Dowell is one of six Britons who died in Turkey last year after medical procedures, most of which were cosmetic.

Another, Janet Lynne Savage, 54, went there as part of a package offered by a health tour company, but bled to death after her gastric reduction surgery went horribly wrong.

The mother-of-two had told Regenesis Health Travel she no longer had access to Ozempic and was worried she was gaining weight. But like Dowell, photos of Savage show a radiant, beautiful woman—one whose life ended in part because of the terrible pressure we put on ourselves to look “perfect.”

Of course, it is easy to pretend that these things only happen in countries like Turkey. But they don’t. Alice Webb, a 33-year-old mother of five, died in Gloucestershire in September after undergoing a ‘liquid’ BBL at a British clinic. The non-surgical cosmetic industry – responsible for all those ‘touch-ups’ that are now as common as getting your hair cut – is almost completely unregulated.

And last week, the first death in Britain linked to weight-loss shots was reported. Susan McGowan died in September after taking Mounjaro; the drug was listed as a contributing factor to her death.

While there is no suggestion that she has done anything other than following the correct procedures and using a registered pharmacy for her prescription, numerous investigations have found that the injections are being illegally sold online to people who are already of a healthy weight and they don’t need.

I could fill this entire column with stories about women who have been mutilated in the pursuit of unattainable beauty ideals. Because despite all the talk about body positivity, the truth is that we live in an age that places far more value on a person’s physical appearance than their health.

Social media has made it almost unbearable to be a young woman today, ushering in an era where likes, shares and approval are a universal currency used by anyone with an Instagram or TikTok account. It’s not enough to put on some mascara and smile at the camera; now you also need a flattering ring light and a crash course in photography to ensure you capture everyone’s best angles.

Photoshop was once the domain of glossy magazines and models. Today, filters and AI editing apps are commonplace tools on our phones, leaving a generation feeling disappointed every time they look in the mirror or see an unedited photo of themselves.

But while editing photos is one thing, editing your body is another.

So how can we turn the tide and prevent people from feeling like they have to undergo dangerous surgeries to be accepted? For starters, we need to change the culture, so it’s not uncommon to post photos without filters. We cannot have a generation whose self-worth is based entirely on digitally altered images that bear little or no resemblance to reality.

France has a good handle on this. Last year it became the first European country to formally regulate influencers, and now French social media users must declare whether images have been retouched or created using artificial intelligence.

The law also prohibits the promotion of cosmetic surgery. Those who break the law face a two-year prison sentence or a £250,000 fine.

It may seem a bit steep. But as the families of all the people who have died from cheap cosmetic surgery will undoubtedly tell you, it’s impossible to put a price on a life.

Brave Louise puts the ‘real’ in reality star

I’m a big fan of Made In Chelsea star and Mail’s You magazine columnist Louise Thompson, whose health problems led to her needing a stoma earlier this year. Now she is rushed for another emergency operation.

“Despite the surgery, the butt drain, the catheter, the stoma…” she posted on Instagram this week, “there are beacons of kindness everywhere… Thank God for modern medicine.”

Louise is that rare thing: a reality TV star who is real and doesn’t sugarcoat the truth.

I wish her the fastest recovery.

My new secret weapon when I face sexist GPs

Regular readers will know that I have struggled to be taken seriously in the past, with a case of atrial fibrillation being dismissed as anxiety by doctors. Now, however, I have found the answer to medical misogyny: being able to submit my own data to the doctor – via my Apple Watch.

It took years to get my irregular heartbeat diagnosed, but it’s much easier now that my watch alerts me when something isn’t quite right. Last week a notification popped up saying my heart was in atrial fibrillation 20 percent of the time, which prompted me to call my GP, who immediately referred me to hospital.

Within hours I was seen by the doctors, given an EKG and sent on a treatment plan that had me under control. I never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for Big Tech.

• There has been a lot of excitement about the fact that the Booker Prize has been won by a British woman, Samantha Harvey. But I’m much happier that the prize was won by a novel of only 136 pages!

Redeem at Castle Cary

My sympathies go out to the locals in Castle Cary, Somerset, where the burger van at the station has been replaced by a chic cafe called The Creamery, selling focaccia and mozzarella starters for £12 and cider spelled with a ‘y’ ( a sure sign that things have taken a turn for the craftsman). But the worst? A cup of coffee will set you back a whopping £3.80 – almost as much as a latte in the poshest parts of central London.

Trust clinic

Have you heard of the life-changing benefits of adopting the superhero pose? Yes, apparently standing straight with your hands on your hips gives you more confidence and actually lowers cortisol. Do it in difficult situations and feel like the superwoman that you absolutely are.