Efforts to combat aging and prolong human lives have been going on for centuries, with self-proclaimed experts offering elixirs of eternal youth. (Not only) older people have tried, and even more so nowadays, to find and use various options that could guarantee them to live longer and look better (understand younger and physically attractive) or maintain the so-called status quo. These efforts can be subsumed under the discourse of anti-ageing. One specialty is anti-ageing cosmetic/aesthetic surgery, the fastest-growing commercial medicine, and an increasingly powerful normative cultural practice. At the same time, technological advances in cosmetic/aesthetic surgery have caused individual cosmetic/aesthetic procedures to become more common and safer. Therefore, people are fearless and more accepting of cosmetic/aesthetic surgery to improve their physical appearance. This presentation is based on a literature review conducted to gather those research and studies that looked at the motivations/factors/predictors that influence/have influenced or motivate/have motivated women to undergo cosmetic/aesthetic surgery procedures. At the same time, the question is whether this whole anti-ageing machinery is sustainable in the future.
The study is based on the analysis of available materials. These sources were searched in six databases: Pubmed, Sage Journals, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, JSTOR, Cambridge University Press to search for relevant articles according to PRISMA guidelines. The keywords „motivation”, „factors”, „women” „ageing”, „anti-ageing” and „aesthetic surgery” were used to search for records. The presentation will focus on how the different camps discuss the motivations/factors, where they agree, and which points differ. The last part of the presentation will reflect on what areas are being neglected or completely overlooked during this initial stage of the decision to undergo an anti-ageing cosmetic/aesthetic surgery procedure and the future prognosis of sustainability.