Katie W.

I was a Realfriend and loved RS when I first started out. Quickly it became obvious that we are censored, not allowed to convey our true experience if it upsets another doctor who pays the site more than the doctor we are using. This is unethical. Most of the RS staff are millennial IT guys who are dismissive and half-annoyed at us who have plastic surgery and who are completely out of touch with the experience. I had the top facelift following and pulled my entire review (which took months and many invested hours) because I was told I would lose my status if I said anything to defend my doctor who was being smeared by two users with no pictures or reviews. Conversely, another top doctor, who had more ad space completely hacked a woman and left tissue death and pretty much butchered her. She was defending her doctor while normal women were commenting that she should seek a lawyer. We were told to defend her and the doctor and to outcast the woman who were bringing this up. It is all "pay to play" and if users realized that bad reviews were suppressed on higher paying doctors (some pay RS 400 a month up to thousands) they would not feel this was "real" at all. We were constantly censored and any real depth in response to other reviewers was discouraged. The staff would openly talk rudely to each other to us who did not even work for realself. Toxic environment and very fake site. We need something new that encourages meaningful journeys, open debate and real testimonies. Only then can we make informed decisions, not partially informed decisions because RealSelf has a financial motivation to appease doctors who pay more, even if the work they do is sub par.