Not Just for Strippers and Starlets Anymore

Once the domain of strippers and starlets, breast augmentation appears to be catching on with increasing numbers of soccer moms.

"The typical person getting breast implants today is not the stripper, the model," says St. Louis plastic surgeon Leroy Young, who has been in practice for 26 years. "It's the girl down the street."

From 2000 to 2005, the number of U.S. women who enlarged their breasts with implants jumped 37%, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Now that the Food and Drug Administration last month approved silicone-gel implants — generally considered more aesthetically pleasing than salt-water-filled — for breast augmentation, the procedure is expected to become even more popular.

"It's becoming more and more accepted," says Nicole Cummings, who created implantinfo.com eight years ago because she was frustrated with a lack of information about breast augmentation.

In 1998, according to the plastic surgeons' society, 132,378 U.S. women had their breasts augmented — fewer than half as many who had the operation in 2005.

In a 2003 survey funded by the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation, Cummings asked women who logged onto her site about their age, income, education and marital status. The average age of the 3,500 respondents who had implants and the 1,625 considering them was 34. Three-quarters said they were married or in a long-term relationship. Nearly half said they had a bachelor's degree.

Considering that the cost of breast augmentation, which is not covered by insurance, starts at around $4,000, it's not surprising that nearly three-quarters reported earning $50,000 or more.