Yes, Beyoncé's "Pregnancy Lips" Are Actually A Thing

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Yesterday must have been a very slow news day, because notoriously shameless gossip blog MediaTakeOut ran a sensationalist piece claiming that Beyoncé had gotten lip injections while pregnant with twins. “We’ve heard of your NOSE growing during pregnancy… but can it happen to your lips too??” the site wrote. The unfounded accusation, based off nothing except for a recent photo the star posted to Instagram, hit a nerve with Bey’s longtime publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, who shut down the rumours in a strongly-worded statement provided to Gossip Cop.

Addressed to “MTO staffers,” Noel-Schure’s letter detailed the toll pregnancy takes on a woman’s body — the weight gain, the often dramatic change in blood flow, the fluid retention that causes swelling. “Do you know that often women’s gums get swollen? Do you know that it sometimes affects our speech, our ability to chew intently, and a host of other things?” Noel-Schure wrote. “But the sacrifice to our faces, our feet, and our entire bodies is something we welcome because we bring beautiful humans into the world who will one day combat your hate and negativity.”

It doesn’t take an impassioned statement from a pissed-off celebrity publicist to know that, for most women, pregnancy isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Sure, you get the so-called “glow” and the joy of knowing you’re growing an entire human being inside of you, but your face and body do experience some (usually temporary) side effects as a result of the influx in hormones — and swelling is one of them. “During pregnancy, the body produces approximately 50% more blood and body fluids to meet the needs of the developing baby,” the American Pregnancy Association confirms. “Swelling is a normal part of pregnancy that is caused by this additional blood and fluid.”

Decidedly not a normal part of pregnancy: undergoing elective cosmetic procedures. In 2015, during her second pregnancy, Kim Kardashian was also accused of getting lip injections after alluding to her “pregnancy lips” in an Instagram caption.

Jessica Simpson shared a similar photo on Twitter in 2012, writing, “Woke up looking like the lip injection fairy visited me in the night! Is this how pregnancy face begins?!”

While hyaluronic acid fillers and Botox aren’t technically banned for usage in pregnant women, they are discouraged — not because there’s a known risk to pregnancy associated with them, but because, as an article published by the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery states, “Definitive recommendations on the safety of procedures such as chemical peels, injectables, fillers, and most laser therapies during pregnancy cannot be made [due to] a lack of controlled trials addressing the safety of cosmetic procedures during pregnancy.” In other words: There hasn’t been much research into whether or not these procedures are safe during pregnancy, so they’re generally not recommended.

Considering that Beyoncé spent her entire past pregnancy being accused of not actually being pregnant, the claim that she’s had lip injections is relatively tame by comparison — but, as Noel-Schure made very clear, patently untrue and still hurtful. And, even though B didn't get lip injections, why are we still so obsessed with analysing the decisions other people make about their own bodies — not to mention, furthering the negative stigma around cosmetic surgery? It's 2017, people. Let's move on.