Radical new techniques are fuelling a boom in cosmetic surgery by cutting recovery times by more than half. The new procedures – aimed at women who cannot afford to take too long off work – include breast enlargements that do not require implants and the “executive facelift” which allows patients to return to work within a week. Plastic surgeons are banking on the new wave of gentler and less intrusive procedures to woo those who have previously been put off by fears over long-term scars and length of recovery time.
The new procedures will be highlighted at Britain’s largest cosmetic surgery event, the Body Beautiful Show in London’s Olympia today. And in Hampshire, the policy is to offer treatment only in exceptional circumstances: if, say, a woman has been unable to conceive after a serious accident.Nice will hold a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Brighton this week, at which health experts will highlight problems surrounding the provision of fertility treatment.Dr Lawrence Shaw from the British Fertility Society called for fertility treatment to be available as freely as treatment for cancer.

New forms of liposuction, such as liposelection, will also be featured. He is leaving the NHS, he says, because the Government is not giving enough priority to helping people who cannot conceive. “If you are in your 20s you have more time on your side.”Six months ago, the Department of Health issued new guidelines stating that trusts should be offering women at least one free cycle of IVF treatment. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) also recommends that women aged between 23 and 39 should be eligible for free treatment.But Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority confirmed that, in its area, eligible patients had to be between 36 and 40 at the time of treatment. This is another blow for women who have tried for children for a long time, only to opt for IVF in their late 30s.In Cumbria, some healthcare trusts, including Carlisle, Eden Valley and West Cumbria, have a three-and-a-half- year waiting list. Although it is offering couples two free cycles of fertility treatment, North Cumbria is turning down those who have children from previous relationships.Earlier this month, women who put off having children until late in life were warned that they were defying nature and reducing their chances of conceiving.

Doctors writing in the British Medical Journal criticised those women who wait until their late 30s before trying to have a baby.However, the charity Infertility Network UK said the NHS was denying women the opportunity to become mothers because of its age-selection policies.”People have waited, expecting to get treatment, and are then told they are not going to receive it, which is cruel and unfair,” said a spokeswoman. But experts say that the selection process penalises those women who may have had a chance of having children through IVF in their 20s.Even hospital trusts that do not select patients on the basis of age are warning couples they may have to wait years to get treatment on the National Health Service. The higher levels of antibodies may yet turn out to be a result – not a cause – of the semi-starvation suffered by suffers of anorexia and bulimia.. Women who are desperate to have children are being told by doctors that they have to wait until they are in their 30s before they can have free fertility treatment. At least 25 hospital trusts, including those in the Thames Valley and Hampshire, have drawn up these age-based criteria, branded “cruel” by fertility experts.
In some cases, doctors offer treatment to patients only over the age of 36 – and in some cases not until they are 39. By this time, the fertility of an average woman will usually have declined by at least half.Health officials have defended the criteria by claiming that younger women have more options available, such as adoption, and more time to try to overcome any unexplained fertility problems naturally.

The discovery could offer new ways of treating the conditions suffered by around a million in the UK.
High-profile sufferers have included Diana, the late Princess of Wales, and the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have identified high levels of a particular group of antibodies in those people with the eating disorders.The antibodies that are generated to fight common bacteria such as E coli and Helicobacter pylori could have a role in attacking chemical messages controlling appetite, it is claimed.Professor Tomas Hokfelt said: “Our data reveal that core psycho-behavioural abnormalities characteristic for eating disorders correlate with levels of antibodies.”Susan Ringwood, chief executive of the Eating Disorders Association, said: “There is already some research suggesting eating disorders can follow an infection, so this is very interesting.”As yet it is unclear whether the link is significant. It’s a fitting setting for Jeremy Lee’s predominantly British-driven cooking, including jellied pork with pickles and toast, smoked-haddock fish cakes, and roast grouse with bread sauce.Email Terry Durack about where you’ve eaten lately at t.durack independent.co.uk. Eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa could have a physical rather than psychological cause, it was reported last night. Researchers are said to have linked the diseases to malfunctions in the body’s immune system, leading it to affect appetite. Also enjoyable are the closer views of chef Robert Kisby’s Bresse pigeon with port sauce, red mullet with sauce bouillabaisse and lemon charlotte with blueberry compote.Blueprint Cafe Design Museum, 28 Shad Thames, London SE1, tel: 020 7378 7031 Blag a window seat here, to take advantage of the glorious, in-your-face, up-your-nose views of the Thames and Tower Bridge. You can also make a meal of the solidly crafted French-based cooking, including seabass with Puy lentils and sauternes jus, and daube of beef with pomme pur?and root vegetables.Le Mont Urbis Centre, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, tel: 0161 605 8282 Perched on the fifth and sixth floors of the gleaming steel-and-glass Urbis Centre (“the museum of the modern city”), this sleek modern restaurant enjoys panoramic views of Manchester’s Exchange square and the city beyond. Ristorante Caruso Hotel Caruso, Piazza San Giovanni del Toro, 2, Ravello, Italy, tel: 00 39 089 858 801.

Dinner daily, around £135 for two people, including wine and serviceScores 1-9 Stay Home And Cook 10-11 Needs Help 12 Ok 13 Pleasant Enough 14 Good 15 Very Good 16 Capable Of Greatness 17 Special, Can’T Wait To Go Back 18 Highly Honourable 19 Unique And Memorable 20 As Good As It GetsSecond helpings: Other restaurants with viewsHolbeck Ghyll Holbeck Lane, Windermere, Cumbria, tel: 01539 432 375 From the oak-panelled dining room of this 19th-century former hunting lodge, you can make a meal of the prime Cumbrian views across Lake Windermere, to the mountains beyond. So why eat here? The joy is in the fact that the very local produce is in the hands of chefs so proud of their own region that they offer it at its best, never dreaming of reshaping it through their own egos You know exactly where on earth you are with every mouthful As if, with that view, you were in any doubt *15. And giving my wife a menu without prices (she then pinches mine).Ravello has several good restaurants cheaper than this one, and two other five-star hotels with the same killer views. It is quickly, skilfully, filleted and served bathed with its sauce, and it is as fresh and as sweet as fish can be. A squeeze of zesty, fresh-tasting Amalfi lemon – the secret of the famed local Limoncello liqueur – lifts the dish even further.With the ocean in front of me, it’s hard to be too interested in the veal escalopes, fillet of buffalo and rack of lamb.