By DR. SHEILA NAZARIAN
Should self-care stop after, or even during, a cancer treatment?
Actress Amanda Peet confessed this month to feeling ‘superstitious’ about elective plastic surgery after surviving early-stage breast cancer and undergoing radiation and a lumpectomy.
‘I can’t seem to just think about a facelift and changing my face, it goes straight to thoughts about death,’ Peet told NPR. ‘It makes me feel… that if I were to actually do an elective surgery to look younger, my cancer would come back,’ said Peet, who also recently lost both of her parents.
As a board-certified plastic surgeon, I often encounter patients expressing concerns similar to Peet’s. After a cancer diagnosis, things once postponed suddenly carry a new weight. For many patients, this includes decisions about their bodies, including whether to move forward with cosmetic surgery.
Some high-functioning individuals, including business executives and caregivers, often seek to take advantage of these ‘forced pauses’ in work, to consider procedures they’ve long deferred. It’s not uncommon, for example, for someone undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy to also schedule a facial rejuvenation procedure, capitalizing on their recovery time to emerge from a difficult chapter feeling renewed.
Obviously, it’s complicated. Cancer strips away a sense of control. A person can begin to feel like their body is something that has been acted upon rather than something that belongs to them. For some, choosing a cosmetic procedure, whether it’s removing excess skin after weight loss, addressing facial aging, or refining a feature they’ve long felt self-conscious about, is a way of reclaiming ownership.
But there are also very practical considerations.
Safety always comes first. Elective procedures are generally postponed during, and immediately after, chemotherapy, radiation, or periods of significant immunosuppression when tissues are fragile and the risk of infection is higher.
Actress Amanda Peet confessed this month to feeling ‘superstitious’ about elective plastic surgery after surviving early-stage breast cancer and undergoing radiation and a lumpectomy
Though, once a patient is medically stable, which is typically determined in close coordination with an oncologist, primary care physician and surgical team, surgery may be entirely appropriate. In fact, it is even entirely acceptable, when patients and medical teams agree, to have cosmetic procedures in windows between cancer treatments.
Of course, not all cosmetic procedures place the same demands on the body.
Invasive surgeries, such as abdominoplasty, also known as a tummy tuck, or combined procedures, like a brachioplasty, an arm lift with a breast lift, typically require longer periods under anesthesia and larger incisions. These procedures tend to be more physically taxing surgeries that require significant healing time.
A facelift, while still a major surgery, is often less physiologically depleting than large volume liposuction, but still requires careful consideration in post-cancer patients.
Smaller procedures such as eyelid surgery, minor liposuction or non-surgical treatments like injectables or lasers may be better tolerated and can sometimes serve as a more conservative first step.
The key is not just the procedure itself, but the amount of stress it places on a body that may still be recovering.
Timing is equally important. In many cases, surgeons look for a window after active treatment has concluded and the patient has regained baseline strength, is not immunocompromised, often several months following chemotherapy or years after radiation. But this determination varies widely depending on the individual and the type of cancer.
Equally important is emotional readiness.
Some patients are motivated by a life-affirming desire to move forward, to feel like themselves again, or even better than before. Others may feel pressured to ‘bounce back’ too quickly, before they’ve processed the emotional toll of their diagnosis.
A thoughtful consultation with a board-certified plastic surgeon, ideally one experienced in post-oncologic care, and when appropriate, in collaboration with a mental health professional, should explore both the physical and psychological dimensions of the decision.
Finally, as Amanda Peet discussed, there is the issue of guilt, which surfaces more often than people might expect.
‘I can’t seem to just think about a facelift and changing my face, it goes straight to thoughts about death,’ Peet told NPR
After a cancer diagnosis, things once postponed suddenly carry a new weight. For many patients, this includes decisions about their bodies, including whether to move forward with cosmetic surgery
Patients will say: ‘I should just be grateful to be alive, why am I worrying about my appearance?’ That’s understandable, but gratitude and self-investment are not mutually exclusive. Wanting to feel comfortable, confident and whole in your body does not diminish your appreciation for life. It can be an expression of it.
For many survivors, aesthetic procedures are not about changing who they are, but about aligning how they feel inside with what they see in the mirror. After months or years of treatment, hair loss, weight fluctuations, surgical scars, and fatigue, the reflection can feel unfamiliar. Reconnecting those two identities, the internal and external self, can be profoundly healing.
That said, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Some patients ultimately decide against elective procedures, finding peace in leaving their bodies exactly as they are. Others move forward and feel empowered by the choice. Neither path is more ‘correct.’
What matters is that the decision is informed, safe, and deeply personal. When it comes to plastic surgery, the conversation should not be framed around vanity or fear, but around autonomy, timing and intention.
At its core, these decisions are not about surgery. They are about what it means to live fully after being reminded, in the most profound way, that life is not guaranteed.
