Would you shell out over US$900 for a breast massage?

The newest viral sensation making the rounds on Vietnamese social media is a novel two-in-one method claiming to increase bust size by utilizing a combination of acupressure and breast enlargement machines.

According to a Facebook account belonging to a local beauty salon, the method is a “safe and effective” means of breast augmentation.

“Our customers receive hand pressure on their breasts in order to stimulate mammary glands. This helps increase their breast size as fat is automatically moved from the belly, shoulders, and arms to the bosom,” an employee from the beauty salon said.

 A breast enlargement machine is used as a follow-up to the acupressure technique, according to the employee.

“After experiencing our service and continuing with daily massages, the beauty of your breasts will last for four years, or possibly even your whole life, if you take care of them and don’t become pregnant,” she added.

Another beauty salon offered a similar breast augmentation regimen consisting of ten consecutive sessions at its facility at a total cost of VND21 million ($924).

For one patient at the salon, larger breasts were the least of her worries after a session. Instead, she was focused on the pain and red marks left on her chest from the technician.

Pham Trinh Quoc Khanh, an employee at Trung Vuong Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, said breast enlargement machines are not actually capable of making a bosom firmer and fuller.

Instead, they leave users with painful bruises and damage to their skin, connective tissues, and breast ligaments, resulting in saggy breasts after treatment.

No research has been conducted proving that the bosom expands as the amount of estrogen, a hormone produced in the ovaries, increases under the influence of repeated physical stimulation, according to Dinh Thi Lan Huong, a doctor at the Traditional Medicine Institute in Ho Chi Minh City.

It is therefore completely groundless to claim the effectiveness of such ‘brute force,’ she underlined. Mammary glands are prone to break under such stress, a condition which can cause problems with breastfeeding, she added.