ALEXANDRA BOULAT / VII for TIME APPLE CHEEKS Dusseaux’s recent face-lift helped to restore her youthful bloom

SPECIAL REPORT     Europe’s Extraordinary Makeover
	Nose too big? Breasts too small? Years taking their toll? Cosmetic surgery, once the indulgence of the rich, is now reshaping women — and men — of all ages and incomes. Inside the Continent's obsession with external beauty
	By CATHERINE MAYER / Location

Posted Sunday, March 5, 2006; 12.33GMT
It's what's on the inside that counts. That's a sentiment Thierry Moreau is preparing, body and soul, to endorse, if not quite in the spirit the hoary old platitude is usually intended. In half an hour, a surgeon will make an incision below Moreau's left breast and push a transparent sac of gel into the cavity. To the strains of Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale, the surgeon will prod and manipulate the material until satisfied, before repeating the procedure on Moreau's right side. When the patient, sutured and bandaged, stirs from his anesthetized slumber, he'll find one of his dreams made reality. Augmented from within, Moreau will rise from his bed, the owner of a proud new set of pectorals.

Will his enhanced physique enhance his life? The 43-year-old two-time divorcé thinks it will. A financial manager in the French Ministry of Defense, he's devoted his out-of-office hours in the last year to researching what cosmetic surgery can do for him. "I've always had a complex with regard to my chest," he muses, as he waits to be escorted to the operating room. "There were times when it didn't bother me that much, when I was married and living the normal life of a couple. But I'm single again and I suppose you could say there is always that desire to seduce." Cherchez la femme. When a man behaves, well, oddly, there's bound to be a woman — or women — involved. Why else would Moreau travel 600 km from his home in Bordeaux to a clinic in a Paris suburb to risk an unnecessary medical procedure and the potential jibes of friends and colleagues — and shell out €3,900 for the privilege?

Moreau has been unhappy with his pecs for years. His first wife, he says, sometimes mentioned his chest lacked muscle. Like the rest of his body, his upper torso, while not buff, appears well-proportioned enough in the waiting room at the Institut Européen de Chirurgie Esthétique et Plastique. But, says Moreau of his ex-wife's commentary, "I took it well, but maybe deep down it kind of got to me." Dr. Paul Seknadje, the surgeon who is shortly to perform Moreau's operation, confirms that among the growing numbers of men seeking his services, a significant proportion are spurred to do so by female voices. "In many cases wives are the ones to suggest that their husbands get rid of fat to look sportier," says Seknadje.

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Changing Faces [Aug. 05, 2002] ...and thighs, calves, busts? You name it. from Seoul to Surabaya, Asians are turning to cosmetic surgery like never before. Liposuction's Limits [Aug. 30, 2004] Surgery makes you slimmer, but it may not make you any healthier. Here's why Precision Incisions [Dec. 16, 2002] 3D mapping software linked to robotics gives surgeons more control than ever before Next-Gen Liposuction [Dec. 16, 2002] Resculpt your body for the price of a good meal Peer Pressure Plastics [Aug. 05, 2002] Kids gotta have it too At What Cost Beauty? [Mar. 1, 2004] Plastic surgery may have lost some of its stigma, but that doesn't mean the risks have vanished too New Faces [Dec. 24, 1923] Lasting legacy of the Great War Search all issues of TIME Magazine Indicates premium content