Abdominal Liposuction in South Korea

When I first thought of getting lipo done in South Korea, there was hardly any info online about it, or real reviews from people who had done it. So I've decided to document my experience in the hopes that it will help someone else in my shoes!

I wanted to get liposuction in order to give my waist a more feminine shape. I've never been overweight or "fat", however all my fat liked to go right to my love handles. With a large ribcage and narrow hips, this all created a pretty square shape. I hated it! In the mirror I'd always pull my love handles back and see how it would look if I was shaped differently. Even exercising every day did nothing to improve my shape (just made my boobs even smaller, of course).

I was going to be traveling in South Korea anyways, and I knew it would be cheaper there. Admittedly, my research into the various clinics wasn't super successful. Most of their websites are just flashy and full of photoshop, and don't offer any real useful information or real before/after photos. Which is super frustrating. I got in contact with a few clinics and asked a bunch of questions, and once I was in Seoul I set up meetings and consultations.

The first place I went to was the one I ended up going with, Wonjin Beauty Health Clinic. The place is pretty fancy and everyone looks like they know what they're doing. I don't know how truthful this was, but they gave me a 2 mil won discount in order to use my before/after photos for their website. Even though the final price was still about 3 mil won (I only wanted to spend 2 mil max), I decided to go for it.

Everything was very professional, I had my own translator come along with me everywhere. There was a followup consultation with blood work and body fat testing. Then a coupled days later I came in for my surgery.

I was pretty damn nervous, and everyone noticed and tried to tell me to relax, but that didn't help much lol. The anaesthesia finally took care of it. Next thing I knew, I was groggily waking up in a bed with another translator waiting beside me. It took me about 10 minutes to feel awake/stable enough to leave (I just took the subway back to my guesthouse).

The next day I came back to get my custom compression garment put on, and in a few days (one week post op) I will be going in to get my stitches removed.

I'm about 4 days post op and so far the pain is definitely bearable. The swelling is super annoying, I feel like a sausage in my compression garment. Yesterday I took the garment off to sponge-bathe and took photos. In comparison to my before photos, I don't really look any different at all, but I can tell that theres a difference between the fat and swollen flanks. Bruising is very minimal. I'm a bit nervous that I won't look any different when its said and done, but I know that the swelling will go down eventually. My doctor advised me to massage the areas every day as much as I can, and that really hurts sometimes. Sometimes it won't hurt much, and other times it will be a very sharp pain. I just bear through it, and I don't go too rough on myself cause I know the area is trying to heal. The massage is basically to just help with the swelling and fluid drainage.

I can't wait for the soreness to be completely gone and to feel normal again haha.

I'm at just over 2 weeks. My stitches are out and the swelling has gone down quite a bit, but my left flank is much larger than my right. I can even see the difference in the compression garment... I know that swelling can be uneven, and I shouldn't be worried for another 6 months (yeeesh...) but I have a feeling this is extra fat and not swelling. I can just feel that there is more mass on that side. So... I'm pretty nervous.
I'm also super lumpy, which I know is normal too. Doing self massage but I worry that I"m not doing it correctly, or not often enough. The surgeon at Wonjin just looked at me for like 2 minutes at my 2 week followup and left. He seemed super happy with the results, but its not much help. I feel like, now that my surgery is done and I've paid, they don't really care much about me anymore. Or, I could be overthinking things... When I voiced my concern about the unevenness the answer was "people can swell unevenly" and then "the doctor can't always get everything perfectly symmetrical" Ummm...isnt that his job though? Ugh. Just hoping it gets better!

Now that it's been over 6 months I can definitively say this procedure left me with NO results. I'm so upset, all I want to do is cry. I've kept healthy habits and exercise, and if anything it seems like the fat that was taken out (if they DID take anything out, which I'm skeptical of) has grown back. Which I didn't think was possible. But my body is the exact same way it was at day 1. Exact same. Not even the tiniest bit different.

Don't go to this doctor. Don't go to this clinic. They are a total sham and you will be wasting all of your money. I don't even know what the hell the doctor was doing while I was under.