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From labiaplasty and labia puffing, to pubic hair transplants, penile implants, and monsplasty, it seems there’s nothing we won’t do to our nether regions.

But there’s one procedure that many plastic surgeons would never get done themselves: a BBL.

In a recent Reddit thread, cosmetic practitioners were summoned to share the body altering surgery they’d avoid and why — and out of more than 2,000 responses, the Brazilian Butt Lift was by far the most common.

‘BBL is the only aesthetic procedure that has its own autopsy technique,’ wrote one, while another added: ‘It carries a surprisingly high mortality rate and the recovery is brutal.’

What is a BBL and why is it so risky?

Plastic surgeon Dan Marsh, co-founder of The Plastic Surgery Group, tells Metro that a BBL involves liposuction to remove fat from the abdomen waist flanks – what we might know as ‘love handles’.

This fat is then collected in a canister before being injected into the buttocks to change their shape and size.

‘You can inject up to two litres of fat per buttock either between the skin and muscle or into the muscle itself,’ he explains. ‘The risk is if you inject it into the muscle you could accidentally inject it into one of the big veins in the muscle which can be fatal, because fat will lodge in the patient’s lungs.’

The method is primarily used in South America and the US but is less common here in the UK.

Practices that do perform fat transfer buttock augmentation here typically use an ultrasound while injecting between the skin and muscle, in an effort to decrease the risk.

However, the BBL still has the highest mortality rate of all cosmetic procedures, and regulatory body BAAPS recommends its members refrain from offering it altogether, claiming the results can be ‘disturbing’.

Just last September, 33-year-old mum-of-five Alice Webb died from complications of a ‘liquid BBL’ using dermal filler.

This saw Save Face campaign for ‘Alice’s law’ to make it illegal for anyone other than a registered plastic surgeon on the GMC specialist register to perform the treatment.

Dan himself stopped performing BBLs once reports of serious complications began to rise.

‘I decided it was too risky,’ he says.

This was echoed by a nurse on the Reddit thread who wrote: ‘From blood clots to sepsis, it’s just not worth it. If the fat travels into the bloodstream, it’s over. Not worth the risks.’

Is the BBL falling out of favour?

Despite the risks, in 2023 a blinding 771,333 BBLs were performed, making it the eighth most popular surgical procedure across the globe, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

There’s a death for every 4,000 of the procedures performed according to the inquest of Alice Webb, and it seems people are gradually realising its not worth the dangers.

Nearly 50,000 fewer BBLs were performed in 2023 than 2022 – and according to Dan, it’s becoming less and less popular.

Geordie Shore’s Chloe Ferry even had her BBL reversed in February, announcing on TikTok: ‘I’m really happy. It just looks so much better, I look more in proportion and more like me.

‘The surgeon couldn’t get all the fat out he wanted to because the previous surgeon might have put the fat too close to the muscle, which is really dangerous, so he took out as much as he could.’

While of course there are those who still want that coveted Kim K aesthetic, the £7,000 price tag of the procedure along with more widespread news of potential complications could finally be turning us off.

What other procedures would plastic surgeons avoid getting?

The BBL wasn’t the only procedure copping heat from surgeons on Reddit – rib removal was also widely criticised.

Dan says the treatment – known as the ‘Barbie waist’ in the plastic surgery world – is ‘coming back into fashion’ in recent years.

‘It’s pushed by South American surgeons a lot in tandem with a BBL so you get a small waist and big bum,’ he explains.

‘You don’t actually have a rib removed, they break the lowest rib and put a tight waist trainer on, so when the rib heals it looks much narrower.’

Dan would never do rib removal, as the ‘excessive’ complications include the broken rib puncturing the liver, spleen and lungs and in some cases even causing pneumothorax (collapsed lung).

‘Plastic surgery should be safe and never put you at high risk,’ he adds. ‘First, do no harm is the rule of a doctor.’

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