San Francisco Frontiers - Central Asia's unbridled cosmetic surgery boom

Instead, she was left with severe swelling, an open wound and a legal dispute with the surgeon who performed her botched procedure in Kyrgyzstan.

With a swollen face and a gash under her breast where "the stitches came undone" three times, Tergenbayeva barely resembles herself in the pictures taken after the surgery that she showed to AFP.

"I couldn't open my eyes, my oxygen saturation and blood pressure had dropped," she said, after developing an angioedema -- a swelling in the under-skin tissue -- from the medication she received.

Her case is just one of an increasing number of failed -- sometimes fatal -- procedures in Central Asia, where cosmetic surgery is experiencing a social media-propelled boom.

Tergenbayeva's surgeon was detained in September for smuggling medications into the country.

Around 40 patients had lodged complaints.

But he has been released after his case was dismissed, and, to Tergenbayeva's horror, continues to practise.

"He presents himself as the best surgeon in Kyrgyzstan, but he's just a kind of 'butcher' of Kyrgyzstan," she said.

He "should have been imprisoned", she added.

The surgeon did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

- 'Too much freedom' -

Like many, Tergenbayeva, said she was "attracted by the beautiful photos on Instagram" of other cosmetic operations.

Official statistics are lacking, but media in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have reported an increasing number of victims.

The trend has empowered more women to speak up, especially after a Kazakh blogger with around a million Instagram followers died after undergoing liposuction in May.

Experts have attributed the cases to a lack of state regulation, the use of expired medicines and unqualified practitioners working illegally.

Authorities have acknowledged problems.

The Kyrgyz health ministry told AFP that the situation was "particularly worrying in Bishkek and Osh, where more than 1,300 companies are illegally carrying out their medical or pharmaceutical activities."

They have started inspections, leading to fines and closures of some premises that offer invasive procedures without proper permits or with outdated products.

But the effectiveness of the interventions is patchy.

"Many beauticians often have a little too much freedom. They think they have learned and, without being surgeons, sometimes perform surgical procedures," Kyrgyz plastic surgeon Iskender Kachkinbayev told AFP.

"All medical interventions must take place in a medical setting, under no circumstances in an office," he said.

Despite the dangers, influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram or TikTok promote private clinics or beauty salons that experts say are dubious.

A quick social media video can result in "10 patients for consultations tomorrow," Kachkinbayev said, warning that the offers "can sometimes be a real scam."

- 'Think twice' -

Jasmine Karipayeva, 27 from Kazakhstan, decided to have blepharoplasty -- surgery to remove skin from the eyelids -- after "coming across a video on TikTok", lured by low prices and pictures of professional-looking surgery.

"There is a quest for European standards. We have the impression that if we get our eyes done with open eyelids, they will look beautiful and natural," she told AFP when asked why she had undergone the procedure.

She immediately regretted the move.

"One eyelid is drooping, the other remains open. The doctor realised he had cut too deeply into one eye."

"No one can give me back my original appearance, because a lot of fat and skin have been removed," she said.

She has decided not to go through the ordeal of a court battle against the doctor.

Kyrgyz nurse Oksana Tikhaya is another victim of a botched procedure.

An operation to life the 48-year-old's eyelid after a minor stroke left her with huge swelling that covered her eye.

"You couldn't even get your little finger in there. It's been a year and a half, but my eye still feels strained and I constantly want to force it open," she told AFP.

She said she "regrets not having consulted the reviews and having rushed to this surgeon".

Tergenbayeva, who had the failed breast surgery, is also urging others to be cautious.

"Women should think twice before succumbing to the charm of all these Instagram beauties and going under the knife."

X.Roberts--SFF