Pia Tjelta, Vanessa Rudjord, Synnøve Skarbø and Karim Sayed’s new beauty clinic in Oslo has received a lot of criticism after using the word “women’s health” in their advertising. – To reduce a major life problem and social problem to something that must be solved through intervention in the body surface, and then present it as wholesome women’s health, that is an impressive piece of propaganda, says Henrik Vogt to news. Responsible doctor at the clinic, Karim Sayed, has apologized for the use of the word women’s health. Read more of the answer further down in the case. Synnøve Skarbø, Pia Tjelta and Vanessa Rudjord announced last week that they will open a new beauty clinic at Frogner in Oslo, with Karim Sayed as the doctor responsible for the clinic. Photo: Julie Pike Vogt, who is a researcher in medical ethics at the University of Oslo, has written a lot about aesthetic medicine in the past. He believes that the industry is helping to change the requirement for dying in a way that is a public health problem. – It generates a higher or changed ideal on a societal level and therefore creates a lot of ill health. – I have raised the question of whether this is medicine at all, and whether they should at all be able to use the word doctor in contexts where they work cosmetically. It’s about money His criticism is that these doctors make money from women and men who express dissatisfaction with their own appearance, and that this is also a market that the industry partly helps to create itself. – The elephant in the room here is that this is about money. Vogt believes the profession has not properly discussed the medical-ethical issues linked to this type of medicine. – This is about a greedy medicine that wants to turn more of women’s lives into medical problems in order to make money from it. I think that’s why people also react, that they have this gut feeling. Sayed: The alternative is worse Responsible doctor at the new clinic, Karim Sayed, thinks the question of whether it is reasonable to call aesthetic medicine medicine is interesting. – The advantage of calling it medicine is that it creates an industry of health personnel and doctors who carry out the treatment. It is important, because these treatments are here to stay. If you can’t do this, you can cause people serious complications. Sayed says that he has worked against the authorities to ensure that only healthcare personnel are allowed to carry out such treatments in Norway. To the criticism that the industry makes money from people’s insecurities, Sayed replies that body and beauty pressure is a topic that is always discussed in the industry. He believes they must offer treatments that keep what they promise, and take responsibility for working against body pressure and beauty tyranny. – In addition, the industry has a clear responsibility for not making sick quite normal signs of ageing, he says. Gain more self-confidence Nurse and blogger Michael Hartmann (48) says the criticism of cosmetic treatments assumes that adults do not have the ability to make their own and informed choices when it comes to their own bodies. – They beat people in the head with moral sledgehammers, speak disparagingly to them and kid adults who like to spend their money on treatments. Nurse and blogger Michael Hartmann believes that the criticism against cosmetic treatments suggests that adults are not able to make choices about their own health. Photo: Ingeborg Undheim / news He agrees that words such as women’s health do not belong in aesthetic medicine, but believes that the criticism against beauty pressure belongs to the debate about body pressure among young girls. – We are completely forgetting to talk about all the other age groups who do this. He himself has had minor nose surgery, removed fat bags under the eyes, tattooed eyebrows and eyeliner, and had botox injections in the forehead and on the side of the eye. – I did it because I wanted to. Michael Hartmann with a bandage on his nose right after the cosmetic nose operation. Photo: Privat Hartmann says that he has used cosmetic treatments after a difficult period in his life. – For me, it was about regaining a natural balance with the face I saw in the mirror, and how young I felt on the inside. Hartmann is a former colleague of doctor Karim Sayed, when they both worked at Gatehospitalet in Oslo. Dissociating The Norwegian Dental Association and the Norwegian Association for General Medicine (NFA) came up with a “policy document” in 2021 in which they distance themselves from cosmetic treatments. Vogt believes that doctor Karim Sayed’s practice at the clinic is a clear example of practice that is contrary to the guidelines from the NFA and the Dental Association. The document states, among other things: “With current knowledge, I believe that cosmetic treatment without a medical or dental indication should not be carried out by professionals such as general practitioners or dentists.” Head of the NFA, Marte Kvittum Tangen, tells news that she does not want to call aesthetic medicine medicine. Leader of the Norwegian Association for General Medicine, Marte Kvittum Tangen. Photo: Thomas B. Eckhoff / The Norwegian Medical Association – I actually think that they understand the ethical and ideal in it, and can agree with it, but nevertheless they have made other choices in what they use the profession for. Responsible doctor Sayed disagrees with how the NFA and the Dental Association think about aesthetic medicine. – Several of the treatments are approved, documented treatments with drugs listed in the joint catalog and only doctors, possibly with the help of nurses, can carry out such treatments. – Do I still want to go up like in the USA? Tangen in NFA believes that the use of “women’s health” in the press release is an abuse of the term. – Women’s health is about the fact that women and men have different health, and that we have had and still have too little knowledge about women’s needs for diagnostics and treatment. – It is about the fact that we have not been able to interpret women’s symptoms of, for example, heart and vascular disease as well as men’s symptoms, says Tangen. – That they think they are doing something for women’s health is ugly, says gynecologist specialist and former senior physician at St. Olav’s hospital in Trondheim, Kristin Offerdal. Gynecologist specialist Kristin Offerdal runs a public gynecology clinic in Trondheim, which, among other things, specializes in the diagnosis of cervical cancer and the treatment of hormonal disorders. Photo: Press photo She thinks that what celebrity women are doing now is very speculative. – The most important thing now is that we women stand against the tyranny of beauty. – We must be sensible and sensible ladies, who ask us this question: Do we still want to rise like in the USA? Do I want to add that Botox and fillers are normal? Offerdal believes that one should further promote diet, exercise, outdoor life and a good self-image, in addition to researching a wide range of women’s diseases. – We women must be allowed to believe in ourselves rather than paying thousands of kroner for a certain appearance. Sayed: Not a PR stunt Doctor Sayed has subsequently laid low to news for the use of women’s health in the press release. – Aesthetic treatments absolutely cannot be called women’s health, says Sayed to news, adding that it is due to poor communication that the clinic has to take on. – If I had known that the communication was not clear enough, and that it could be perceived that way, then I would have done this again. – So it’s not a PR stunt from you? – No, by no means. Sayed says Rudjord, Tjelta and Skarbø want certain offers at the clinic, such as a pelvic floor exercise machine, gynecologist and hormone treatment for menopause. – I think that hormone treatment for menopause and gynecologists can be called women’s health, says Sayed. – Is it ethically sound to use women’s health in this context? – If it had been the case that we had meant that aesthetic medicine is actually women’s health, then firstly it would have been unethical, and secondly completely wrong, but we do not mean that. Now I’m trying to clear up a misunderstanding. news has been in contact with co-owner of the clinic, Vanessa Rudjord, but she does not want to make a comment.
ttn-69
– A public health problem – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
