Mon. Nov 4th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Forty-nine-year-old Jennei Hart is at a crossroads.

The mother of two lost nearly 200 kilograms between 2004 and 2006. She’s kept off the weight since then, and undergone procedures to remove excess skin — a by-product of significant weight loss.

But there’s another side effect she’s still grappling with.

“When you lose so much weight … it’s so sad, you become quite gaunt looking,” she says. “[My] cheeks, they’ve all dropped down.”

Although she’s a “newbie” to the realm of cosmetic services, Jennei has been researching, and seriously considering, getting enhancements done.

“I just want to be able to smile like I used to and be happy within my own skin,” she says.

But after the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) tightened its guidelines earlier this year, much of the information Jennei is searching for — including whether a clinic offers specific services — now constitutes “illegal advertising”.

“We’ve always been taught to do the research, you know, find out what’s going in your body,” Jennei says.

“Now … this whole area, to me, feels like it’s blanketed and I’m back at square one.”

Woman, with hair pulled back, smiling and wearing khaki jacket.
Jennei Hart says, for her, injectables aren’t about getting “big lips” or “wrinkle-free skin”.  (Supplied: Jennei Hart)

Australians collectively spend more than one billion dollars a year on non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The TGA says their guidelines are designed to improve public safety and address the “increasing vulnerability of young Australians influenced by advertising in the cosmetic space”.

But industry practitioners warn the crackdown could cost prospective patients time and money, and fuel international ‘cosmetic tourism’, which carries significant risk.

Cosmetic crackdowns

Under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, the promotion of prescription-only medicines, such as botox or dermal fillers, has never been permitted.

Most cosmetic injectables contain substances that are listed in the poisons register and cannot be advertised to the public.

Until recently, the TGA allowed generic references to prescription-only goods — such as the phrase ‘wrinkle-reducing injections’ — in advertisements.

In March, the TGA told the ABC it previously considered this to be a “pragmatic approach” that allowed cosmetic clinics offering prescription-only goods (such as botox) to differentiate themselves from those that did not.

Source link