Using Botox to help you find a new lover? Don’t expect other women to approve...

TURNING to Botox and other cosmetic treatments is a personal decision for women prompted by a variety of reasons.

However, those who do it to help them find romance with a new partner can be judged more harshly by other women.

A study suggests that motivations, such as boosting their career or self-esteem, are regarded more sympathetically.

Researchers studied the reactions of 306 participants to different scenarios in which middle-aged women had anti-ageing treatments such as Botox and dermal fillers.

For example, the group of men and women was told: ‘Beth is a middle-aged woman who wants to maintain a more youthful appearance to look for a romantic partner.

‘She regularly uses professional treatments such as Botox and dermal fillers as part of her anti-ageing treatment.’

The Swansea University study found that women took specific aims into account. It said: ‘They evaluated the women most positively when age concealment was motivated by self-esteem, followed by employment and least positively for romantic purposes.

‘This finding highlights the idea that personal wellbeing as motivation for appearance enhancement is more accepted than other motivations.’

Men generally were harsher critics of attempts to stave off the ageing process, according to a report in the journal Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences.

However, the reason was not so important as they judged women the same regardless of their aim in having the treatment.

Lead author Michael Jeanne Childs said: ‘From an evolutionary perspective, women are judged more negatively by other women when they use treatments to attract a partner because they may be viewed as a potential competitor.’