S1 EP13: Holiday or Horror Show? The Truth About Overseas Surgery

Before we pressed record we were talking about one of my friends who recently got a hair transplant overseas to save money. When you work out the flight, the accommodation, the procedure and the “holiday” (which is not really a holiday because you are recovering), it was close to half the price of getting it done here. He came back, looked a bit funny in the first few weeks like anyone would after a transplant, and then over the next few months actually lost all the hair that had been planted. When he went to get it looked at, the clinic here told him the way the transplant had been performed had damaged the follicles, and that meant the hair could not grow back. A botched job. He is 22 and effectively bald now after paying for the first procedure. This is exactly why we wanted to do this episode. According to reports, over 15,000 Australians travel overseas every year for aesthetic and dental procedures. That is a massive number, and in just the last three years there has been around a 38% increase in corrective surgery being done in Australia on patients who originally had the procedure done overseas. That is the real cost nobody talks about.

We are always going to say you get what you pay for. In any aesthetic industry, the cheaper you go, the more you tend to pay in the long run. We don’t even do surgery ourselves, but this applies across the board. If I see 18 clients in a day, at least two or three of them will mention they are planning to fly somewhere to have surgery done. That is a lot. And the complications we are seeing are getting really high. Think about it logically. Some of these clinics are doing so many procedures a day that they are running like a production line. You fly in, you consult, you have the procedure, you fly out. The aftercare that matters the most is not there. When something goes wrong, and at volume something always goes wrong, you are on a plane back home with nobody looking after you.

The stories we see walking through our clinic are enough on their own. We had a client who had a tummy tuck overseas, and her scar had opened up, it was rock solid and rotting. It was a genuinely shocking thing to see. Scarring is a huge factor with any surgery, and it is one of the biggest ways you can tell when a surgeon has cut corners on technique, sutures or aftercare. I have seen scarring from tummy tucks that literally zigzags down the abdomen because the wrong suturing technique was used. And then the client wants that scar corrected, which is another procedure on top of another recovery. The arm-lift scarring coming back from some of these clinics is four centimetres wide in places. Same with thigh lifts. You have to ask yourself whether the scar you are left with is genuinely better than whatever it was you were trying to fix. We also know someone whose veneers were done overseas to save money, and one of them fell out while they were eating. What was left underneath was a tiny shaved peg of a tooth. Multiple dentists back home refused to replace it because they didn’t know what material had been used, and couldn’t match the shade of the others. For a period of time, she had to use chewing gum to fill the gap. Genuine story. That is how wrong these things can go.

And with nose surgery specifically, I cannot tell you how many overseas rhinoplasty results have come back to us looking genuinely scary. A nose is claustrophobic to recover from at the best of times. Going through all that pain and travel to come home with a result you cannot fix is devastating.

If you are curious about what can be done non-surgically, it is worth having a look at a nose shape assessment here first before committing to anything surgical overseas.

One of the things people do not think about when they book surgery overseas is who looks after them if something goes wrong once they are home. Surgeons in Australia are booked back to back. None of them are clearing their schedules at short notice to take on a complication from a procedure they did not perform. They do not want the risk, and legally it is not their responsibility. So your fallback becomes emergency.

Emergency rooms are stretched. Wait times are getting longer. No one in an emergency department is specialised in cosmetic surgery recovery. By the time you are seen, assessed and worked up, you could be hours in. If you had something like a blood clot on the flight home, which happens when surgeons don’t put patients on the right blood thinners for the journey, that time really matters.

Honestly, what freaks me out the most is the scenario of being post-surgical in a Sydney emergency waiting room for six or seven hours while someone tries to work out what you had done and how to manage it. That is where this idea of a “holiday plus surgery” really falls apart.

This is the part that does the most damage. Most of the overseas surgery disasters we see start with a consultation that was never really a consultation. Real red flags we hear constantly from clients who went overseas: The doctor did not consult with them. They spoke to a receptionist or a coordinator, sent through photos by email or WhatsApp, and only met the surgeon the day before the procedure.

That is not a consultation. That is a booking. A proper aesthetic or medical consultation should run for at least an hour, with the surgeon personally going through what you are having done, how the procedure works, what could go wrong, what aftercare looks like, and what happens if you are not happy with the result. The language barrier was too big. We are not saying every overseas doctor needs perfect English, but there has to be a base level of direct communication between you and the person operating on your body. If everything is being routed through a translator or reception staff, things get missed, and what you want is not always what gets done.

They did not scare you a little bit during the consult. A good consult includes every potential side effect and adverse event. Even the rare ones. If a surgeon tells you “nothing goes wrong with this procedure,” that is a red flag. When we do a consultation at our clinic, clients sometimes tell us we scare them. That is deliberate. I have a duty of care, and the patient needs to know the risks to make an informed decision.

The reviews you are trusting are not real. Half the content you see about overseas clinics is paid. Influencers are getting free procedures in exchange for content, and the content is almost never an honest account of their experience. Look for real testimonials from people you know, or from sources that are not sponsored.

And one we flagged specifically: do not send intimate photos by email for procedures like labiaplasty. Nothing about that process is safe or professional.

If you are still thinking about going overseas, at least take these with you. Research the actual doctor. Not the clinic, the doctor. What did they study, where did they study, how long have they been doing this specific procedure, and are they certified by a recognised surgical body. Anyone can put anyone on a website or in a reel.

Pay for a proper consultation, ideally more than one. Have an initial conversation, take some time to sit with it, and then go back for a second. Check whether the same questions get the same answers. Check whether new questions get thoughtful responses. If the surgeon gets annoyed that you are asking questions, that is a red flag and an immediate exit.

Ask what happens if something goes wrong. What is the warranty, if there is one. Who covers the cost of corrective surgery. Will they revise your result at their expense, or are you paying for another flight, another procedure, another recovery.

Budget for the revision upfront. Do not just budget for the procedure. Budget for the possibility that you will need corrective work back home. If you cannot afford that too, you cannot afford the overseas option.

Do not fly too soon after surgery. Long-haul flights cause natural swelling in the body. On top of a recent surgical recovery, they are dangerous. We tell clients not to fly for two to three weeks after even non-surgical treatments like dermal filler. The idea of flying seven days after a breast implant or a tummy tuck is wild. Australia has rules and guidelines for a reason. Yes, we complain about them, because they restrict what we can post and say as practitioners. But those same guidelines are what protect patients. When you fly to a country with fewer rules, the trade-off is on you.

If you take one thing from this episode: cheap costs more. In your body, in your bank account, and in the years you could spend trying to fix something that should have been done properly the first time. Stay in your own country. Find a great surgeon. Take your time. And if you want to explore non-surgical options first, come in for a consultation and we will talk you through what’s possible without going under.

Thank you so much for tuning in. Wherever you are watching or listening, please like, comment and subscribe. Send us a DM if you have any questions or want to know more. Love you guys. Bye.