Dr. James Barber - Cosmetic Surgery Blog

Sexuality involves not just a physical, but an emotional disrobing, and when you have sex with your partner, you reveal not only your body, but your feelings about your body. If you feel uncomfortable about a particular feature of your body, such as your breast or your stomach or your buttocks, these feelings can inhibit you from committing yourself emotionally and physically to your intimate relationships.

Emotional Security

Self-confidence is the foundation of any healthy relationship. A person who feels confident in himself or herself does not seek excessive validation from a partner. Demanding excessive validation leads a person to seem needy or annoying, and a person who cannot get by without that validation will often stay in an abusive or damaging relationship. Even enriching and long-term relationships can be negatively impacted by persistent insecurities, as the insecure partner withdraws from situations where the source of insecurity is given attention.

For insecurities about the body, this often means that sexual contact becomes a source of anxiety.

Body Image

Body image refers to our perception of our own bodies, the emotions we feel about how we look. Unfortunately, many people, especially women, constantly exposed to a barrage of media images of more or less perfect bodies, airbrushed on magazine covers or cantilevered into haute couture gowns for short walks down the red carpet, feel negatively about their bodies. Common areas of concern include:

• Nose
• Lips
• Skin around the eyes
• Breasts
• Stomachs
• Buttocks
• Even, in some cases, the vaginal lips

If you feel concern about any of these areas, you are constantly aware of your perceived shortcomings. The truth is, there is nothing wrong with your body, nothing that needs to be "fixed," but the disparity between how you feel you should look and how you actually look creates negative emotions. These negative emotions are what cosmetic surgery can fix.