Fast Confession - plastic surgeon Ján Pilka: People crave surgery for Instagram photos
Breast enlargement and reduction, face lifting, liposuction or lip injections, that’s a cosmetic surgeon’s daily bread. Ján Pilka, however, specializes in penises - he can lengthen them and increase their width. To achieve this, he uses fat from the thighs or abdomen. Managers, young men as well as unusually well-endowed men are all interested in surgery. In an interview with LP-Life.com, he also talks about the trend of more and more people wanting various improvements so as to look good on Instagram. However, the "maintenance" of such an artificial six-pack isn’t easy. If the influencer stops watching his weight for a moment, a disaster is in the making!
You can lengthen a penis by up to 4 centimetres. What kind of men get penis enlargements?
It is a diverse group, both age-wise and socially. I see men between the ages of 18 and 65; it’s active men, managers as well as ordinary people working in services. There’s no specific pattern to it.
And do you ask them about their reasons?
They usually tell me the reason. Most often their own self-confidence and sometimes they’re doing it for the sake of their wife or male partner.
Not everyone was born with a large penis, and in such cases, I understand the desire to enlarge what they were given by nature. But are those who have an average or a big penis also interested in it?
We get both men with extremely small penises and those with larger ones. In the case of larger penises, it must correspond with their body type. A big, muscular, tall guy can have a bigger penis than a six-foot-tall man who weighs fifty kilos. Then the penis may be much larger than the average, but it fits the figure.
Does enlargement affect functionality and sex?
If the penis worked before, it will work just the same. The advantage is that the penis is a bit thicker after the operation, so if the partner is a bit looser, this problem will also be solved.
Did I understand correctly that you extend in both length and width?
Yes, the thickening of the penis can also be very useful during sexual intercourse. The extension itself is more effective in the resting stage.
Does plastic penis surgery hurt a lot? And how long does it take for the patient to resume sex life?
Immediately after the surgery, the patients receive analgesics, but the next day it is all relatively tolerable. The procedure itself takes 60 to 90 minutes. Recovery lasts six weeks, during which time there must be no sport or sexual activity.
How should I imagine such an operation?
In case of lengthening, I cut the ligament that holds the penis at a certain angle to the bone. I detach the ligament, achieving a better inclination, which results in elongation. I then deposit fat between the penis and the bone, having previously removed it from the abdomen or thighs, depending on what we’d agreed on with the client.
In case of widening, I also have to remove the fat, and then I use small punctures to apply it to the subcutaneous tissue of the penis, making it thicker. It must be done evenly so that no lumps are visible on the penis.
Are men afraid to let you cut in their penises?
They’re not too afraid of the cutting, because I don't actually cut in the penis, but above it, but they’re worried about possible scars and what it will look like after the surgery. It's a very delicate procedure. In case of lengthening, all that remains is a four-centimetre long scar in the shape of an inverted Ypsilon.
How did you get the idea to start enlarging penises? You’re one of the few people who specialize in it in the Czech Republic…
I figured out there was interest in it and started to inquire about the possibilities. I went to a workshop where I learned everything, and then I started doing it in our country. The method itself has been invented a long time ago, though minor adjustments are made from time to time.
What other procedures do men want?
Eyelids, gynecomastia, i.e. plastic breast surgery, liposuction and occasionally abdominoplasty (shaping of the abdomen, editor's note).
It’s said that appearance isn’t all that important when it comes to men. But it doesn’t seem to be totally true…
Although the interest of men has increased, it’s still mainly women who opt for cosmetic surgery. Men aren’t too invested in their looks, but about thirty percent of them really care about it. They want to be slimmer and they don't want to have saggy faces.
What’s the most common procedure in the case of women?
We do breast augmentation, enlargement, reduction or modelling most often. Younger women want bigger and bigger breasts, older women want them higher and higher. And there is also a growing number of women from the generation of older ladies who are more interested in their appearance, get facelifts, have their eyelids fixed. But otherwise, they usually want liposuction, as they always have.
What about adjustments of genitals?
We also make adjustments to the external genitalia, large and small labia, which can be filled, smoothed or reduced. Sometimes it is genetically determined, other times they change after giving birth. There’s an aesthetic side to it, too, some men don't like enlarged small labia. It gives women more confidence, especially during oral sex, and it helps them to improve their sex life.
When someone comes to you and says, "I want my fat sucked out," do you simply comply?
They must have realistic expectations, I can't turn a 100kg man into a 50kg model. That’s simply not possible, we have a limit of five percent of body volume per surgery.
In addition, since we’re talking about liposuction, you should know it’s not used primarily for weight loss, but rather serves to shape the body, for example, if someone has atypically stored fat, thick thighs, large hips or love handles. I can't suck fat out of everything.
How often do people have unrealistic ideas about what to expect?
It happens that people want us to remove more fat than possible, other times they demand unrealistically large breasts. But we set those boundaries in consultation.
Do you get any other extreme requests?
We get all kinds of requests. For example, someone asked whether I could make them a fixed tail. Or I met a lady who claimed that someone had operated on her nose and breasts remotely via Wi-Fi. But when she peeled off the patch, she had nothing there.
Do you also get requests from people who want to look like other people, celebrities?
That doesn’t happen very often. They do show me examples of the breast they would like to have, but they don't want to look like someone else.
But can it be arranged?
You can’t change a person’s type, so if someone looks completely different, it’s not possible.
Has plastic surgery been affected by the trend of perfect Instagram photos? Do people want to have surgery so as to look better on social networks?
Definitely, it's a great motivation. Retouched photos and filters make people crave cosmetic surgery, that's a fact.
Women want the kind of noses or cleavages they see on Instagram. Men, on the other hand, want to fix their abs. A typical Instagram syndrome is the ever so popular six-pack, which is becoming trendy again. But again, it doesn’t work for everyone - the guy cannot be obese.
How do you create a six-pack?
It is ultrasonic liposuction with specific results that targets certain (small) areas of your body. We use an ultrasonic rod that passes through the subcutaneous tissue and works exactly where we need it. Ultrasound breaks down fat cells so that a specific area can be precisely shaped. And then the excess fat is sucked away.
And what happens when the man gains weight?
That´s the other extreme, then the six-pack can become even more pronounced and it begins to look artificial. It is necessary to maintain weight stability.
Which procedures can clearly improve people's lives and self-confidence?
We get a lot of people who’ve had extreme weight loss, for example, 70 or 80 kilos, and all that excess skin looks terrible. And in this case, the physical and mental quality of life will improve a lot after the surgery.
Are there any procedures that are routine today, but were difficult and expensive in the past?
Plastic surgery in general has evolved quite significantly. In the 1990s, fifty times fewer surgeries used to be performed than today. The procedures are evolving and a lot of what used to be done 30 years ago has changed.
For example, the development of implants has improved a lot, we have various textured surfaces and nanosurfaces, the technology of the surgery itself has evolved as well and the risk of complications has been reduced. Back then, the risk of complications in the case of capsular contracture was 15 percent, now it is around 3 or 4 percent.
