As part of my in your 20s series, if you don’t like part of your body, should you change it now? Or wait to do things until later, like after kids? What is better to do? When?
So first, lets talk about common surgeries of the body (not breast). 
- Liposuction
- Tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty), Mini tummy tuck, (Mini abdominoplasty)
- Less common: arm lift, thigh lift, body lift
Which of these would I recommend to young women? My general bias is to wait to do any surgeries where you are cutting out skin and tightening the belly muscles (abdominoplasties) until you are done with having children. The reasons are multiple, but generally when you are pregnant you are going to stretch out your belly skin and muscle. If you have issues with loose skin or stretch marks already (prekids) let pregnancy take advantage of this. If you tighten prior to kids, you will likely form new stretch marks and loose skin. Doing a repeat tummy tuck can be more difficult.
I DO like you to do surgeries which rely on skin tone, as your skin tone only gets worse (sorry) as you age (I know. Tough to do that aging thing.) So liposuction is great to do when you are younger. If you have an area which never budges, even when you are superskinnyworkingout, this is your body shape. Those with love handles which are always there, or the inner thighs which rub together. These are issues which will persist throughout your life.
Of course I always recommend you have a good diet and exercise program. If you haven’t tried to lose the weight or tone up without surgery, please start there. Surgery has risks, scars, sensory changes, cost. It is not something to be done lightly.
Pregnancy may make your problem areas worse, as the non “baby weight” gain goes first to where you have pockets of fat. So those love handles which you have now may become LOVE HANDLES when you are pregnant. And then when you are done with your kids and want to address the problem area, you are now 10 years older and your skin tone is worse. What may have been easy to fix at age 25, may not be at age 35.
I have many blogs about liposuction dos and don’ts. Please read them here. But know I am a fan of lipo prior to kids. Where can you do liposuction? What areas?
- chin and jawline
- arms
- abdomen
- back / braline
- love handles
- inner thigh, outer thigh
- knee
Other body contouring surgeries tend not to be needed by someone in their 20s, unless they underwent major weight loss. Surgeries like armlifts and thigh lifts I think are fine to do when you are younger, as those are not areas hit hard by pregnancy.
SO. To summarize:
- liposuction in 20s- YES
- Arm lift or thigh lift in 20s- YES, but usually only seen after major weight loss (100 pounds +)
- Tummy tucks, mini tummy tucks- NO. Wait til done with kids.