boys and men
More men than ever are getting plastic surgery
Nick Oxford for STAT
Plastic surgeon Douglas Steinbrech has identified five iconotypes of the men who get plastic surgery; There's the male model/actor, the father next door, the chief executive, the bodybuilder, and those who've had significant weight loss. (Chris Sanford, pictured above, falls into the last category.) It's been a little over a decade since Steinbrech started to attract men to his practice. Most surgery clinics didn't have any photos of men on their websites back then, but that's no longer the case today.
Last year, men across the U.S. got a total of 1.6 million cosmetic surgery procedures, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) — that's 4% more than in 2022. As photos of sculpted, muscular bodies proliferate online, while many workers still spend hours a day staring at their own faces on Zoom, men are increasingly turning to plastic surgery to deal with raging insecurity about their looks, STAT's Olivia Goldhill reports. Read more from Olivia on what the most common procedures are, and why it matters.
potent quotable
From a new book about — and for — intersex people
"Far from being founded in decisive clinical science, these decisions were based more on crude assumptions, and eyeballing genitals."
That's from a book titled "Hermaphrodite Logic: A History of Intersex Liberation," written by Juliana Gleeson and published earlier this summer. Gleeson here is referring to the way that, throughout the 20th century, doctors often decided to operate on intersex babies so that their genitalia would align more closely with binary ideas of sex — procedures that are still commonly performed today. Gleeson spoke to The 19th about writing a book that focuses on the perspective of intersex people themselves.
science
New guidelines for stem cell-based embryo models
An influential scientific panel is pumping the brakes on stem cell-based embryo models — an umbrella term for the increasingly complex structures researchers are building from stem cells and growing in the lab to mimic aspects of embryonic development. In new guidelines released yesterday, the International Society for Stem Cell Research called for stricter oversight of studies involving such models and the establishment of red lines against using them for certain activities, STAT's Megan Molteni reports.
"Stem cell-based embryo models are transforming how we study early human development," ISSCR President Hideyuki Okano said in a statement. "And it is critical that this progress is supported by clear guidance, a strong sense of responsibility, and global consensus." Read more from Megan about the specifics of the new guidelines and how experts reacted.
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