Chinese women who increasingly see Western norms of fashion and beauty as their desired goal are placing their health at risk with multiple cosmetic procedures ranging from skin whitening to breast augmentation.

Desiring to be more slender, taller, and with lighter skin, Chinese clients are arriving at hospitals for plastic surgery in record numbers. More than 30,000 such procedures are performed annually with cheek bone reshaping and eyelid work topping the list of requested changes.

Additionally, hundreds of women each year have the bones in their legs cut to make room for the insertion of metal rods that will add one to two inches to their overall height.

The booming plastic surgery market and a corollary trade in cosmetics creates a climate ripe for quacks and purveyors of questionable products. Multiple reports point to the sale of bleaching creams, for instance, that have left users with severe facial scars after the infliction of serious skin burns.

Recently the Chinese government banned the use of an injectable gel for breast enlargement after women suffered pain and disfigurement so severe that mastectomies were required in the most extreme cases.

Concurrent with the rise in cosmetic procedures is a new demand for surgeries that attempt to reverse or correct work botched by unqualified charlatans, but sadly these victims are learning that rarely can subsequent surgeries restore the individual to their original appearance.

The specific circumstances of West’s consultation with her surgeon are not a matter of public knowledge, but in optimal circumstances such pre-existing conditions should directly effect how or even if cosmetic procedures are performed.