SALINE BREAST IMPLANTS: LEAKS, MOLD AND FUNGI
When I first decided to get implants, the choice at the time was Saline implants or Silicone. Like most people, I had heard that when silicone implants leaked or ruptured, you didn’t know until they had made you pretty sick.
Silicone implants consist of silicone gel inside a silicone shell. The gel is a thick consistency and because of the thickness of the gel, it was a preferred implant because it felt more like breast tissue.
On the other hand, saline implants were the other option for a breast implant. Soon after I got my implants, they came out with the gummy breast implant. From what I’ve heard, they are a bit harder to the touch but don’t have issues with leaks like silicon and saline implants (but still are making women sick).
Saline Implants
When I made the decision to get implants, I felt like saline was the safer route because when they did leak, you knew right away. Like mine did back in 2016 when waking up to my left breast completely deflated.
Although my impression of saline implants being safer than silicone implants wasn’t entirely correct. Along with their toxic silicone shell that ends up seeping carcinogens and toxins into your body, saline implants are prone to leak, and grow mold and fungi!!
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Growing In A Restricted Saline Environment
There is data out there that shows a silicone shell is impermeable to fungi and mold growth. Even though the saline-filled implanted is structured in a silicone envelope, saline is permeable and believed to be instrumental in facilitating microbial growth. And when the implant has areas of punctures, this allows for the growth of mold and fungi in the implant.
Fungi and mold can grow and reproduce in a restricted saline environment. As far as I know, there haven’t been cases reported on fungi and mold growing in silicone implants because silicone isn’t permeable to these types of growth.
The crazy thing is, mold and fungi tend to grow rapidly and increase once inside the silicone shell! With my leak, it was large enough to empty the implant bag overnight, but sometimes there are smaller leaks that can go undetected for who knows how long.
Valves Allow For Bacterial Growth
With saline implants, they are finding that fungi may be able to survive, colonize, and even cause infection in saline-filled devices through the valve. Yikes!
The valve port in saline implants is where the fluid collects and the mold and fungi begin to grow and reproduce. These organisms can cross into the implant due to a defective valve, where they colonize inside the implant.
Hitting Too Close To Home
So you are probably thinking that it’s not too big of a deal because if you have a leak with saline it will all just exit the implant and you’ll know right away.
Well not so much because most likely, you will have a leak in the valve area. My leak was not from a puncture, but from a defective valve that allowed all of the saline to leave its silicone shell. And honestly, who knows how long The valve was defective before all the saline emptied out of the implant.
And as of now, my right breast, I’m pretty sure there is a very tiny leak because the implant is softer and smaller than my newer left breast, which I’ve had for 4 years now.
So even though you decided to go with saline over a silicone implant… they are finding out not only are we getting sick from the toxic silicone shell but also they have the ability to grow mold and Fungi.
And, we all took a science course in school… remember how quickly mold and fungi grew?!
