cosmetic surgery doesn't cure invisibility

Farah is a beautiful woman of 54 who never married or had kids, preferring instead a life of serial relationships. She had enjoyed admiring glances all of her life until she reached the age of 49 and realized that very few people -- especially men -- were looking at her.

"I'd walk down the street or enter a crowded room and heads no longer turned," confides Farah. "And this wasn't just the men. Even women stopped looking at me with their usual envious glances."

Farah took a long look at herself in a full-length mirror and saw nothing significantly different. What had happened? Why had she become invisible?

"Becoming ‘invisible’ is a phenomenon that a lot of menopausal women talk about," says Farah. "They think that they don’t look any different, but they do. People don’t look at old women."

"Apparently, we are all hardwired to look at youthful beauty," says Farah. "A woman can still be beautiful in her 90s, but it is youth that nature favors and it is youth that attracts the eyes of passers by and the attention of male suitors."

"At 50, a woman really needs to say goodbye to youth and dating and say hello to maturity and a solid relationship," says Farah, "but I wasn’t ready to give up the ghost yet. It was time to consult with a cosmetic surgeon."

"The only part of my body that I felt needed enhancement was my breasts," says Farah. "Okay, I know it seems odd that I thought a breast enhancement would cause heads to turn once again, but that was the way my menopausal brain worked and I went ahead and had the operation."

Farah is now a 54 year old woman with the breasts of an 18 year old girl.

She couldn’t wait to proudly flaunt her new bosom to the world. She bought some low cut tops and entered as many rooms and walked down as many streets as she could. The result?

"Well, yes," admits Farah, "I am definitely getting looks, but they are not the type of looks I previously received. The looks are a mixture of pity and disbelief rather than admiration."

After realizing that she had made a fool of herself, Farah gave away the low cut tops and resumed her normal life.

She still admires her new breasts and never regrets having the operation done, but she doesn’t flaunt them any more. They make her feel good about herself, and that, according to her cosmetic surgeon, is the best reason for any woman to go under the knife.

"If it’s going to make you feel good," Farah advises, "just do it!"

Like a lot of fifties women, Farah has now adapted to being invisible. She doesn’t have to worry so much about being impeccably made up, coiffed and dressed to the nines every time she goes out. She’s learning to relax and just be herself and maybe in time a nice old gentleman will take her fancy.

Unfortunately, though, Farah recently discovered to her horror that her before and after pictures had been posted on the Internet by the cosmetic surgeon -- without her permission.

"From invisibility, I've gone to global visibility," laughs Farah. "My face isn't shown, thank God - just my breasts - and while I don't mind my new breasts being displayed to the world, I'd rather my old ones weren't!"

Farah's story first appeared as the invisible woman