The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CoolSculpting for use in 2010, and in 2019 it was the fourth most popular noninvasive cosmetic procedure in the United States.
But in recent months, a public conversation about the safety of this procedure has become voluble, inspired in large part when the Canadian model Linda Evangelista announced on Instagram that a CoolSculpting procedure had left her “permanently deformed.”
Speaking to
People magazine in February 2022, Evangelista, whose modeling career soared in the 1990s,
shared that she developed paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH) following the procedure.
PAH is a rare side effect of the CoolSculpting process that’s characterized by areas of increased tissue volume, creating firm bulges in the skin, and health experts say that although the procedure is generally low-risk, this possible side effect is one factor patients need to consider.
Read on to find out what else you need to know about CoolSculpting.