26-year-old Elva was born a boy in a small town in Poland. For years, she struggled with her appearance and tried various ways of altering her looks. A few years ago, she started ordering dubious cosmetic products on the black market; first, she experimented with fat-dissolving medications, self-administering two such injections into her face per week. This allegedly left her face looking too thin, which she decided to compensate for with injectable lipolysis and silicone bought online.
“I started with fat-dissolving injections twice a week. Then, when my face started to get too thin, I slowly filled it in until I got a little carried away. I bought injectable lipolysis and silicone online. It’s generally easy to find online,” Elva told Polish news outlet Dzien Dobry. At first, I was doing silicone injections once a week, and then I got a little carried away and started doing them every day. I was living and working in Warsaw at the time, and all my money went to rent, so I didn’t have money for specialists.”
Unfortunately, the high quantities of unsanctioned products and the lack of training in administering them had disastrous consequences. Elva has become unrecognizable, with visible scarring and swelling all over her face, including her eyes, which appear almost completely shut.
“The products she’s injected with are uncertified. Just because nothing’s happening now doesn’t mean that in six months, an infection won’t set in and some inflammation will develop, becoming life-threatening . Her eyes are the biggest concern,” Dr. Marek Wasiluk, an aesthetic medicine physician, said.
In an interview with Dzien Dobry, Elva admitted that her appearance attracts curious glances and unflattering comments on a daily basis. Even her own mother worries about her health, but she continues to reassure her that her problems are only aesthetic and not life-threatening.
Psychologist Paulina Mierzejewska believes that Elva suffers from body dysmorphia, a serious psychological condition where “we stop liking what we look like and constantly strive for an imagined image we want to achieve,” ignoring any and all risks in doing so.
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Dr. Wasiluk pointed out that Elva has a long way to go to regain her natural look and her health, if that is even possible. First, she has to undergo psychological consultations to see if she’s ready to get help, and then an MRI to assess the extent of the damage to her face.
Elva’s shocking case has sparked a debate in Poland about people turning to black market products and performing aesthetic medicine treatments themselves, unaware of what exactly they are injecting into their bodies.
