On November 23, 2025, the Senate took a significant step forward: it established stricter supervision of aesthetic medicine, a rapidly expanding field. The goal? Curb the attractiveness of this sector for certain doctors, and ensure that practitioners have adequate experience and training before performing procedures such as Botox injections or hair implants.
Regulation to curb the flight of doctors
Indeed, until today, any doctor could embark on aesthetic medicine procedures without going through a recognized specialized course. The Senate wants to change this via an amendment to the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS). From now on, the practice of aesthetic medicine will be subject to authorization issued by the Order of Physicians.
But it is not just an administrative green light: this authorization will be subject to conditions. The adopted text provides that a doctor must have “previous practice time in an initial qualification relating to curative medicine”. In other words: having just finished his studies, he will not be able to switch directly to the aesthetic sector.
In addition to this requirement, practitioners will have to undergo additional training or demonstrate prior experience in the field, to obtain the right to perform aesthetic procedures.
Aesthetic medicine must not widen medical deserts
From what he says, the Senate does not legislate in this area just to regulate a business: it is medical deserts that motivate action. More and more doctors – by the thousands according to some – are leaving “curative” specialties (general practitioners, dermatologists, surgeons) for aesthetic medicine, which is much more profitable.
Senator Annie Le Houérou (PS) sounds the alarm:
“The increase in the number of aesthetic medicine procedures is siphoning off the medical personnel we need to fight against medical deserts”
In figures, the phenomenon is already massive: nearly 10,000 doctors practice aesthetic medicine in France, according to the Order of Physicians, including around 1,000 surgeons and 3,700 dermatologists.
And the economic scale of the sector is not insignificant: it generated nearly 2 billion euros in turnover in 2023.
A “first stone” according to the Government
For the Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, this decision is symbolic. “This is a first stone, we will have to put others in place and it follows the work undertaken by my predecessors and the Council of the order. We will continue the work since we must work on the quality, safety, training and regulation of this medicine””
Responsibility is therefore entrusted to the Order of Physicians, which is better able to judge individual skills.