This story has just begun, and it already arouses great emotions, also in me. The scale of the modifications that Elva made on her own face is devastating. My team will try to help her. But to put it bluntly, we don’t know what else can be saved in such an extreme situation.
Silicone oil injection
Elva is a transgender woman. For several years, he has been performing aesthetic medicine procedures – on his own, in front of the mirror. They have led to huge distortions. The patient injected herself with various types of preparations of unknown origin and without any certification: silicone oil, paraffin oil, acrylic.
The case is extremely complicated and multifaceted. Many people in the comments under my social media posts very rightly point out that psychotherapeutic help is necessary in the first place.
Both identity issues and impaired self-perception and a strong addiction to treatments may be involved.
We want to help her comprehensively. Elva is currently in a state where there is no immediate threat to life, but there is a definite threat to physical health. In its tissues there are substances that at the moment do not give acute complications in the form of infection, biofilm or abscesses, but are like a clock bomb. Especially since they were given in huge quantities.
If the patient is interested in trying to regain the natural appearance, it will be necessary to closely cooperate with the plastic surgeon and the aesthetic medicine doctor. We're after our first consultation. In fact, it will be difficult to aesthetically undo these changes.
I also do not know to what extent the patient herself wants to return to naturalness, since her previous activity in the network was based on this drastic transformation. From my first conversations, he wants a little, a little bit not.
In fact, now we are at the stage of intensely wondering how to sort it all out and plan how to talk, how to take care of body health and mental health.
Aesthetic medicine at home: “I’ll do it myself”
If someone is shocked that you can come up with the idea of self-administering fillers, I will allow myself a small digression. I have already described on the blog the case of my patient – an educated, rational person who regularly came to me for Botox and other smaller treatments. But once she bought hyaluronic acid on the internet, watched an instructional video on YouTube and did the injection herself. She came to me with a distorted face and a terrible swelling. She was lucky that there were no serious complications, such as necrosis.
Returning to Elva – it appears from the conversation with her that she had a strong need to change her appearance, but she did not have adequate financial resources. Medical knowledge too.
Probably no doctor would agree to make such extreme modifications as she wanted. So she thought she'd do it herself.
Treatments: 30 ml silicone and “plastic” skin
Using products imported from China, Elva began experimenting. First she served small quantities, then more and more. Her goal was "perfect," female appearance. When asked about the frequency, she admitted there was a period in which she injected herself with preparations daily.
The scale of these actions is terrifying:
- Forehead: She served about 30 ml of silicone in them (in my opinion more)
- Eyes: Elva didn't want to have such huge, swollen eyelids. She didn’t inject anything into it – it was the silicone oil from the forehead that simply flowed lower under the influence of gravity.
- Mouth: They're gigantic. The patient says she didn't plan that much, but she wanted to visually shorten the stretch between her nose and upper lip. She also tried to make a lip lift, but to no avail – the scar remained.
- Cheeks: The skin is very hard here due to countless injections. In addition, Elva underwent a complication after an independent injection lipolysis, which ended in scars.
What strikes me the most – Elva probably doesn’t feel like she looks unnatural. She says she likes her forehead, temples and a complete lack of facial expressions. She would just like to improve the eye area, the scars on her cheeks and slightly change her mouth, which are “hard as a stone”.
She admitted that she is now not performing treatments just because the skin on her face has become so fibrous and hard (like plastic) that she is no longer able to stick needles into it.
Action plan
The first consultation is behind us, the next one will take place soon. We're looking for a solution. Certainly, comprehensive therapy, the help of a psychiatrist, psychologist, plastic surgeon, ophthalmologist and at the end of aesthetic medicine are necessary. A plastic surgeon, Dr. Samir Ibrahim, has already responded to my appeal for help. We need a comprehensive approach, including providing the patient with psychological support. It is difficult to judge at this stage what will be achieved – the situation is extremely unusual and extreme.
This case, though drastic, fits into the madness of chasing an imaginary ideal.
It is fueled by the modern world, technology (flexing filters at the touch of a finger on the smartphone screen), building illusions in the virtual world, and marketing working to sell as many services and products as possible. This is a particularly important topic for me, I will devote a separate article to it. For now, I will end with a bitter reflection: the world promotes extremes, and in the comments under Elva's films he is even encouraged to further, dangerous experiments
