A young woman in China has been rendered permanently infertile after having liposuction on her stomach because she thought she was too fat. The 25-year-old called Mei, who weighed 50 kilos and was 1.65 metres tall, underwent the procedure at Shulan Hangzhou Hospital in Zhejiang province, eastern China, the Hangzhou City Express reported on August 14.
Zhong Chao, a doctor from the reproductive medicine department at the hospital, said Mei told her she had tried other ways to lose the fat on her stomach but failed. Zhong said she opted for liposuction, because she felt she was “too much of a perfectionist to allow a little fat on her belly”. Her menstruation stopped following the surgery and Zhong discovered that Mei’s ovaries had atrophied and she had lost her fertility permanently.
Zhong said even though obesity was often related to infertility, low body weight in women could be the cause as well. A sharp decrease in body fat leads to a decrease in level of oestrogen, the female sex hormone, and causes ovarian dysfunction, she said. Chen Shihong, a doctor at Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, said a “little belly” is normal for women, as the fat protects the uterus and ovaries.
Chen criticised internet challenges such as ant waist, chopsticks legs, palm face – which promote a skinny body as beautiful regardless of the individual, and create appearance anxiety. “It is more important to stay healthy than skinny,” said one person on Weibo. “Exercise is your best friend if you want to lose weight,” another said.
“There is no short cut to losing weight,” commented a third. This is not the first time a cosmetic surgery procedure carried out in China has had very serious negative consequences. In 2021, a 33-year-old online influencer with 130,000 followers on Weibo died after stomach liposuction and breast augmentation surgery.
She was diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis, a bacterial infection that quickly destroyed her tissue and caused multiple organ failure. The clinic that performed the surgery in eastern China’s Zhejiang province reportedly removed more fat from her than the 2,000ml upper limit set out by the state health authority. A doctor was later suspended for malpractice and the clinic was closed.
In March, a 43-year-old mother of three died from cardiac arrest, after having fat removed from her stomach and waist in eastern China’s Anhui province. The woman’s husband claimed the clinic’s staff persuaded his wife to have the surgery while he was on a business trip, knowing that he was against it. They clinic’s staff did not have cosmetic surgery qualifications They also ignored an ECG monitor alert when complications arose during surgery.
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