Kurt Tay removes confidence-boosting c-cup implants after 3 years

He was so desperate to remove his C-cup breast implants that he worked two jobs and slept just three hours a night to raise the $7,000 needed for the procedure.

In April 2013, Mr Kurt Tay, then a 27-year-old security guard, made headlines when he got breast implants because he needed to "boost his confidence".

At the time, he said that after a string of failed attempts to date women, he wanted the breasts "to feel better". Mr Tay also claimed then that he was not a transsexual.

Eight months after getting his implants, he married Madam Kim Ngan, a 29-year-old Vietnamese national.

For a few years after that, Mr Tay, now 30, worked as a cleaner in the day and a security guard at night, earning $3,700 a month - just so that he could go under the knife again.

TRANSFORMATION: Mr Kurt Tay now wants to be a WWE star.

THAILAND

Mr Tay, who supports his wife, said it took two years to save up for the trip to Thailand to remove the silicone implants because he could only afford to save about $300 every month.

When the surgery finally took place in early June, he told The New Paper, which has chronicled his journey so far, that he felt "relieved".

Back in 2013, he had said: "Whenever I saw women on the train, I'd feel very miserable that I didn't have breasts like them.

"It was like suddenly all I wanted was to have breasts. Until today, I can't explain what came over me.

"I was depressed after losing money at the casino and my online escort business failed."

Mr Tay, who also described himself as a "Singapore superstar celebrity" on his Facebook profile page, denies it was a stunt or a cry for attention, but admitted he found life with the implants difficult.

"My wife kept telling me she felt embarrassed whenever we went out because people would stare at us like we were weird," said Mr Tay.

He would then bind his chest before they went out.

"I wrapped them, but you could still see them sticking out because they were quite big," he said.

"So we still got stares. I didn't want her to feel ashamed."

His mother was also upset.

"When I saw my mother just burst into tears, that's when I knew I did her wrong.

"It's like then, I 'woke up'," he said.

Mr Tay declined to reveal more about his family, except that he and his wife are still married and they have been trying to have children.

He now aspires to be a World Wrestling Entertainment star.

"I want to (eventually) build my body (similar) to that of wrestlers like John Cena or The Rock."

Dr Brian Yeo, a consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said Mr Tay's explanation that he had implants after becoming stressed and depressed was very unusual.

"It is unusual that stress could cause someone to suddenly want a change.

"Usually, a person would need to have had sexual identity issues first, before stress can trigger them to get drastic changes made."

Stress, he added, commonly causes people to indulge in vice or take a long break. It doesn't usually push someone to do something as drastic as breast implants.

"Every person is different and there are many ways of coping (with stress) - some people turn to religion, some take the time to reflect."