Health Over Vanity
Fifteen years ago, I made a life-changing decision. I decided to alter myself to try to fit in to what society wanted women to look like. I was self-conscience of the size of my breasts. In turn, I had a breast augmentation procedure at the age of 28. At the time, it was the best decision I've ever made. It served its purpose by improving my self-esteem and confidence. Honestly, I didn't regret it. I did what was best for me. But little did I know, fifteen years later, my health would begin to deteriorate gradually.
During this pandemic, I came across a news report I had saved on my Facebook account dated back to 2017 concerning a condition that many women have begun to report to their primary care physicians as well as the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), known as breast implant illness (BII). This struck my curiosity. I began to research the signs and symptoms that many women have reported and found that I, too, have had many similar symptoms for so many years. I came across story after story of thousands of women who were becoming very ill because of breast implants. Once they made the decision to explant, many of their symptoms disappeared. The list of signs and symptoms is substantially large and I found the following to be the ones I experience the most:
Chronic fatigue
Brain fog
Joint pain and soreness
Dry mouth
Dehydration / Thirst (cannot seem to crunch it)
Metallic taste in the mouth
Temperature intolerance
Heart palpitations
Night sweats
Skin rashes
Insomnia
Tingling in the legs
Muscle twitching
Vertigo / Dizziness
Cracking nails / Hair loss
Acne
Autoimmune Disease / Gastrointestinal issues
Difficulty swallowing / throat clearing / cough
Anxiety
Chronic Inflammation
It has been reported that all these cases have different types of implants. I specifically received the Mentor Smooth Saline Implant by request as I was led to believe that saline was safer. I now have learned that it doesn't matter if the implants are silicone or saline filled, whether it is smooth or textured, or regardless of the manufacturer of the implant that you had placed. All implant shells are made of silicone, which consists of over 40 toxins that seep through your system continuously. That's right! We are talking about acetone, urethane, hexon, and epoxy resign (to name a few). There are also a ton of heavy metals. This is something that is not disclosed during your consultation with a plastic surgeon. And why would it? It's a multi-billion dollar industry that makes its profit from women who feel they need alteration to please themselves, or even worse, to please someone else. To say that this is alarming is an understatement!
At the time of my procedure, there wasn't much information on this topic. I wasn't educated to the degree that I should have been before making this decision. My procedure was also performed in a manner that was not FDA approved, which I was told it was (Trans-umbilical breast augmentation (TUBA)). Would I have chosen differently? Maybe, if given the opportunity to have all the facts. It may have saved me time and money from medical treatments I have been receiving. In 2011, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease (6 years after my breast augmentation procedure) and it has been a struggle ever since. Even though I maintain a gluten-free lifestyle, I struggle with iron deficiency anemia regularly. My bone marrow simply does not produce enough iron to compensate the loss of red blood cells I lose on a daily basis due to the autoimmune disease. It gradually decreases until it's time to perform a series of iron infusions. I get infusions every one to two years now. Iron pills are simply not enough to increase my iron level. As a runner, this is more than aggravating. It is mind boggling how one minute I'm running at a 9 minute mile pace to now running at 11 or 12 minute mile pace and not being able to finish a run or even a race. It's even more of a struggle to get up in the morning. I wake up in the middle of the night wanting to crawl out of my own skin because I feel like I am dying. I get dizzy spells. I have to nap during the day, every day, because my body simply cannot keep up. How does this relate, you may ask? Simple. Professor Jan Cohen Tervaert from Maastricht University in the Netherlands couldn't have explained it better during the FDA meeting of the General Surgery Devices Panel on March 25, 2019...
"50% of women with breast implants get capsular formation. It happens more frequently with smooth implants rather than textured. What is the capsular formation? It is the scar tissue that forms around the implant that acts like a barrier. If you go into the capsular, you will see many activated T Cells. The T cells are mainly the TH1 and TH17 cells. The regulatory T cells fail to produce regulation. This is the perfect circumstance to develop an autoimmune disease."
This may or may not have happened in my case. However, I've decided that health is just more important to me than vanity. I want to feel like my old self again. I miss her greatly. She was unstoppable! Explant is in the near future for me with one of the top five specialty surgeons in the nation, Dr. David Rankin, and I can't wait to see how my mind and body will start to improve and heal. Because my shell and my soul deserves it.
Today, there are resources that you can turn to that will assist you in making the right decision for YOU. Not everyone experiences these side effects, and for those who live a seamless life with breast implants, I congratulate you! You are one of the lucky ones. But not one body is the same and everyone reacts differently. Implants are a foreign object that, in all retrospect, is not part of your natural self. Your body consistently fights against it, trying to protect you from its invasion. Eventually, it starts failing due to the overwhelming workload it puts out in doing so.
If you or someone you love is looking to enhance their pretty little boobs, research everything you possibly can to make an educated decision. Don't go into this blindly as many of us did years ago. You can find a great deal of information at the following websites:
For the time being, embrace your natural beauty and love every single flaw you may think you have. You are beautiful just the way you are... perfectly imperfect.
