What You Didn’t Know About Breast Implants and Breast Implant Illness

I’m sure if you ask most women, they aren’t fairly happy with their breasts. They are either too small, too big, hang too low, not perky enough, or not round enough and for many of us who are over the age of 20, just not full like they used to be.

Most women dream of having the perfect breast. And when I say that I’m talking about, the day when we don’t have to search for the right clothes just to fit our boobs. The day we don’t have to pick out clothes that fit over our breasts or find the right bra that is trying to hold them up or pad them to give you a lil’ somethin’ somethin’.

For me, it was having large breasts and then losing a bunch of weight. It was frustrating. I still had the same size breast but not all the stuff inside them to lift and fill. Plus, they seemed to have headed south for the winter, and I didn’t see them coming back anytime soon!

The Trend of Breast Implants

That’s when I considered having my breast done. My sister had hers done a year prior and hers looked great. She was the opposite of my situation, she had smaller breasts and then had breastfed 3 kids. Even though different breasts, and situations, we both wanted the same, full round perky breast.

After seeing her results, I didn’t really put any more thought into it. I went to her plastic surgeon, paid the bill for my new breast, and then waited for them to come.

We Just Want to Feel Sexy Again!

Getting a breast augmentation is an expensive procedure, but when we start imagining how we want our breasts really to look, and then it’s game over. Once that hits our visualization, we don’t even think twice, and that credit card goes down faster than we could even blink.

This situation is usually even quicker when we talk to others who have had their breast done. They usually are singing the praises of how much they love their new breast and how happy they are with them. I know because I convinced a few girls to get theirs done because I loved mine so much.

Women who’ve had them done always say…  how they feel like a new woman, sexy and vibrant again. And for us women… that’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

We then make that appointment, and start counting down the days until we get those big round perky breasts. Those ones we imagine are going to make us feel sexy once again.

Sound familiar?!

Breast Implant Stats

What I have outlined above, isn’t just the case for a few women, this is millions and millions of women around the world who are getting implants to improve the look of their breasts and overall appearance.

How do I know this? Ever been on Instagram or talked to women who are willing to be open about their ageless breasts or… I don’t know, just took a look around at all the oh-too-perfect-looking breasts out there?

Let’s look at the numbers around the world.

The Numbers Don’t Lie… or Do They?

When started researching how many women in the world have breast implants, I wanted to find the total number of women in the world who have them… but I couldn’t find it! I couldn’t find just ONE big number. How crazy is that?!

As international as we are… you think you should be able to find those numbers pretty darn easily. But with a basic Google search, those numbers are just not found.

They did break some of those numbers down to the US, Japan, Brazil, and a few other top contenders. Unfortunately, I have to stick to the numbers in North America. Specifically the US, since the US is the number one country for breast augmentations.

(Sorry, I wish I had more info… I’ll just have to keep looking!)

Some sources have mentioned that 1-2 million women have breast augmentations in just North America. In Australia, it’s been reported that about 20,000 Australians are getting breast implants every year. And, Brazil had 275,283 breast augmentation procedures done in just 2020 alone!

By just looking at those 3 areas… we already know that’s a lot of women walking around with breast implants.

Breast Augmentations

Let’s back up and start with what a breast augmentation procedure is first.

If you aren’t familiar with the word Breast Augmentation, this is a procedure where a plastic surgeon will improve your breast shape through surgery. This is done by placing either a silicone, saline, or gummy breast implants, into the breast, either above the muscle or under the muscle to enhance the shape and size.

At this point… most people know what one is. They might know it as a ‘boob job’ or maybe just by the term, ‘getting implants’.

Regardless of what you call it, it’s the number one plastic surgery procedure done around the world.  And it’s an industry that’s rolling in the dough like you can’t believe!

The Reason We Get Breast Implants

I have one more crazy number for you… The breast implant industry alone was worth 2.17 billion in 2019 and is projected to be 3.05 billion by 2027! That’s BILLION… not millions, but Billions. The breast implant industry… you know those little silicone bags that are being put into women’s chests to make them bigger? That’s a multibillion-dollar industry.

I don’t know about you… but that’s just mind-blowing numbers to me. Let me clarify something… that’s not ALL plastic surgery procedures… that’s just breast implants alone!

With those insane numbers, you can tell cosmetic surgeries are skyrocketing all over the world. This is mainly due to the demands of the increasing significate rate as a result of the importance on physical appearances. And because of that, breast augmentations are the number one cosmetic procedure done around the world.

Doesn’t it seem like everyone you know these days now has had (for lack of better words) a boob job?

The Breast We Always Wanted

As I mentioned before, most women aren’t fully happy with their breasts. Either they were never happy with what theirs looked like from the beginning, or over the years their breast started to change, especially with age, weight fluctuation, and breastfeeding.

So, we all opted for breast implants. This was the device that would change our lives, it would change how our breasts would look and give us the look we always wanted for ourselves. Plus, we could go as big as we really wanted… yep, pump those itsy, bitsy breasts into the supersized DDDs, we thought we always wanted.

This life-changing device that was invented for us (by… ummm men? Hmmm), would absolutely change our lives forever. And not how we expected them to change us!

Pre-Breast Implants

We have come a very long way in medical advancements. We have come just as far when it comes to our breast enhancements, and what was used before they settled on shoving silicon bags into our chests.

From the early history of breast augmentation, implant materials included glass balls, ivory, wood chips, peanut oil, honey, goat’s milk, and ox cartilage! I can’t even imagine… isn’t that just insane?!

They even tried paraffin injections! One of the many sets back was the wax that was injected eventually would melt in the sun, along with creating lumps, tumors, blue skin, and would even lead to amputation of the breast.

If that isn’t shocking enough, they tried, Teflon, nylon, Plexiglas, polyvinyl, and polyethylene sponges (known as foaming agents made of formaldehyde) and even plastic sponges. These were all the precursors of what we now use for breast implants!

How Breast Implants Came to Be

I could give you the whole backstory, but I’m going to sum it up pretty quickly from here. World War 2 had happened, and they had a lot of leftover wartime products. One of those products was silicone.

Because the war was now over, they needed to use this silicone for something. So, they started to produce silicone polishes and paints, adhesives, and silicone shoe rubber, these shoes were even worn on the moon by Neil Armstrong! Then the medical industry found a use for silicon in catheters, stents, tubing, and blood bags.   

During this time, silicone seemed to be everywhere and in everything. Even American-occupied Japan had docks full of silicon, but strangely enough, the silicon was going missing. It turns out, they were turning up inside the breast of Japanese prostitutes who were injecting themselves to attract American servicemen!

The news of plumped-up silicone breasts ended up spreading through Asia, then made it over to the US. Which led to eventually becoming one of Japan’s biggest exports to the US.

As women were injecting their breast tissue with silicone, just like all the products mentioned before, this silicone began to migrate through the body and started to cause some major infections and even death.

The Implants We Now Use

But that didn’t stop the idea of silicon being placed inside of women’s bodies to become the now multibillion-dollar industry, we now know it to be. It just took on a little bit of a different form.

While in Huston, in 1959, plastic surgeon Thomas Cronin was holding a blood bag and thought to himself, how nice the blood bags were from the glass ones they had used prior. Then his next thought was… ‘This feels good, feels like a breast’!  (If I could put an eye roll here I would! Every time I read his statement, I always think, of course, that was his next thought… SMH.)

And that’s where the whole idea was formed to place silicon inside of those blood bags (that were made from silicon) into the chest walls of women. This would give us the perfect round fuller breast, that I guess… We always wanted? Hmmm.

Oh, and just one more caveat… if your eyes aren’t already open wide reading this, this might shock you even more! It was tested on ONE dog before being put into a woman! And that dog Esmerelda, she ended up chewing that implant out. Just some food for thought.

So, that’s how breast implants got started. And we also know there are millions of women walking around with this invention inside their breast tissue to give the look of the perfect breast.

We should all be happy now, right?!

Explants

Ok… I promise you this is the last number of stats I will give you! But this one is reeeeeaaaally important.

In 2020, 48,358 people in just the US alone, had their implants removed. We call this procedure an Explant. An explant is where they remove the implant from the breast tissue and hopefully the capsule around each implant as well (this is very important! Don’t worry I’ll explain more in a bit).

But even more surprisingly, 71,284 had an explant procedure done the following year in 2021. Almost doubling the numbers in just one year alone! And in 2021, I was one of those procedures. Why? Because I was getting sick… VERY SICK!

The Breast We Don’t Want Anymore!

I bet your next question is… Why are women, who love their ‘new breasts’, getting them removed?

So, you spend a ton of money (and time) on getting a breast augmentation. And sometimes you even have to pay for a few extra procedures down the road for any complications, such as a ruptured implant (like I did), a ‘double bubble’, or even a recalled implant. Then you have to go through all that time and energy of taking time off and healing, and then possibly healing again… Just to take them out for good?! Why?!

(And yes, you have to pay for any complications like a ruptured implant, not the implant itself, but the surgery to have it replaced. It totally sucks!)

I’m sure by now you’ve heard of Breast Implant Illness. And if you’ve read any of my posts, you know I’m a firm believer that the breast implant industry is gaslighting us into thinking our breast implants aren’t the cause for any illnesses we may be experiencing.

And because we are getting extremely sick, many women are no longer wanting those perfect breasts enhanced by breast implants that we are told… ‘we needed to have to be beautiful’. We are coming to the conclusion that our health is vitally more important than large perky breasts.

Breast implants are poisoning our bodies, making us sick, and even killing us. All for the breast of perfection… and the fountain of youth!

Ok… so what really is Breast Implant Illness?

Breast Implant Illness

Breast Implant Illness is an illness caused by breast implants. You might think ok you get sick from breast implants and that’s it.  Buuuut… there’s much more to it than that.

Here’s the deal… we have been told that breast implants are completely safe to be put inside our bodies. We have been reassured that putting silicone inside of our breast tissue, close to our vital organs, like our lungs, heart, and lymph node system, is perfectly harmless.

So, then why are women getting extremely sick from their implants?

Some women are getting sick years down the road while others, it’s almost instantly for them.

We also know this because, after they remove their implants, life returns to pre-implant days. And when we say life… we mean they not only get their health back but too many have been so debilitated that once they remove their implants from their bodies, they regain everything they had lost.

The Gaslighting of Breast Implants

Years of doctor appointments after doctor appointments, months to years of pain, fatigue, weight loss, weight gain, and much more, only be told… well you’re just getting older. This is your life now.

Those were the exact words I was told! But I was only in my early 30s, how could I feel like I was knocking on death’s door? I remember going to a doctor and her saying… I was just pretty much old and fat and needed to work harder!

Then she tried to get me to convince me to have a tubal ligation and to be tested for diabetes. I was 33 and about 30 pounds overweight! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I of course tested negative for diabetes, but like all victims of gaslighting, I was delusional and thought it was all my fault.

Just like a bad relationship… I got out. I eventually found an amazing doctor who knew about Breast Implant Illness (BII) and told me to do my research. So, I did… and with my implants out for a year and a half, I still do my research on BII!

My First Time Hearing About Breast Implant Illness

To this day, Breast Implant Illness blows my mind. It blows my mind that I was ok with putting something foreign in my body that I really didn’t understand. I didn’t understand what they really were and what they really could do to my body. I honestly just wanted to have breasts that looked good when I was naked. Sad to say… I’m now paying the price!

The first woman I had ever met who had her breast implants removed was a registered nurse, in her mid-40s. She had her implants in for about 3 months when she became violently ill.

She had told me she had her breast implants removed. I was like… ‘why in the world would you do that?!’ This woman couldn’t even get out of bed and was throwing up on a daily bias. Her doctor found the correlation and removed her implants. She told me about Breast Implant Illness and what it was. I brushed it off and thought nothing more of it, till a few years later when my doctor diagnosed me with the same illness.

Oh, before I move on, that woman’s life returned back to normal pretty quickly after removing her implants! Coincidence? She didn’t seem to think so.

Finding Others with Breast Implant Illness

There are many, many women who also don’t believe in the coincidences and have made the connection of their sicknesses to their breast implants.

There are over 170,00 women around the world who have joined Breast Implant Illness and Healing By Nicole on Facebook. This is a support group where women are talking about their symptoms, experiences, and their pathways to healing. All these women know what Breast Implant Illness is all about!

This is a great support group to join if you think you might be suffering from the same. Or just want some information. Please check it out and read other’s terrifying and inspirational stories.

Signs of Breast Implant Illness

Through the years I have read many stories of women with Breast Implant Illness. I clearly remember a story of how one woman from Australia was incredibly sick, debilitatingly sick! They ended up finding out that this woman, who couldn’t even pick herself off the floor, had Staphylococcus aureus. She was becoming incredibly sick as each day passed.

Oddly enough, they had found that staph was growing inside her implants. They removed her implants and her life returned to normal. Once again… not another coincidence!

Other women have had lumps, rashes, and fluids in their lungs and chest cavities, while some mysteriously are unable to move their necks or have use of their legs and arms, and many develop autoimmune diseases, like myself. All of these women have noted inflammation and joint pain as their unifying symptoms.

That’s just to name a few! Here is a list of other common symptoms many women have reported having.

Common Symptoms of Breast Implant Illness

• FATIGUE
• BRAIN FOG, MEMORY LOSS, COGNITIVE PROBLEMS
• MUSCLE PAIN AND WEAKNESS
• JOINT PAIN OF THE NECK, SHOULDER, BACK, HIP, KNEE, HANDS/FEET
• HAIR LOSS, DRY HAIR
• PREMATURE AGING OF THE SKIN
• SKIN ITCHING, RASHES
• WEIGHT PROBLEMS
• INFLAMMATION
• INSOMNIA AND POOR SLEEP
• DRY EYES, VISION DECLINE
• HYPOTHYROID
• ADRENAL FATIGUE
• PARATHYROID PROBLEMS
• EARLY MENOPAUSE, DIMINISHING HORMONES
• LOW LIBIDO
• SLOW HEALING
• SLOW RECOVERY AFTER EXERCISING
• VERTIGO
• HEADACHES, MIGRAINES, OCULAR MIGRAINES
• COUGHING, CHOKING, DIFFICULTY SWALLOWING
• REFLUX, GERD
• NAUSEA, LEAKY GUT, SIBO
• IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME
• FEVERS, NIGHT SWEATS, HEAT INTOLERANCE
• PERSISTENT BACTERIAL AND VIRAL INFECTIONS
• YEAST INFECTIONS, CANDIDA, SINUSITIS (FUNGAL)
• EAR RINGING
• METALLIC TASTES
• NEW FOOD INTOLERANCES AND ALLERGIES
• HEART PALPITATIONS, HEART CHANGES, HEART PAIN
• BLOOD PRESSURE PROBLEMS
• SWOLLEN AND TENDER LYMPH NODES OF BREAST AND UNDERARM
• BOUTS OF DEHYDRATIONS FROM NO REASON
• FREQUENT URINATION
• NUMBNESS AND TINGLING IN LIMBS
• COLD AND DISCOLORED HANDS AND FEET
• CHEST DISCOMFORT, SHORTNESS OF BREATH
• PAIN OR BURNING AROUND THE IMPLANT AND UNDERARM
• LIVER PROBLEMS
• KIDNEY PROBLEMS
• GALLBLADDER PROBLEMS
• PANCREATITIS
• DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, PANIC ATTACKS
• FEELING LIKE YOU ARE DYING
• SYMPTOMS OR DIAGNOSIS OF FIBROMYALGIA
• SYMPTOMS OR DIAGNOSIS OF LYME
• SYMPTOMS OR DIAGNOSIS OF AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES SUCH AS RAYNAUD’S SYNDROME, HASHIMOTO’S, ADDISON’S DISEASE, GRAVES DISEASE, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, SCLERODERMA, LUPUS, SJOGREN’S SYNDROME, UNSPECIFIED CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISEASE, POTS, ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, AND OTHERS
• SYMPTOMS OR DIAGNOSIS OF DIA-ALCL LYMPHOMA
• SYMPTOMS OR DIAGNOSIS OF OTHER CANCERS KNOWN TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH BREAST IMPLANTS SUCH AS MELANOMA, BRAIN CANCER, MYELOMA RESPIRATORY CANCER, VARIOUS BREAST CANCERS, VARIOUS LYMPHOMAS, VARIOUS CARCINOMAS, AND SARCOMAS

Luckily, for a lot of women, most of these symptoms go away after having an Explant. Once those breast implants are removed and taken out of the body, many women have reported seeing huge improvements in their health, almost immediately.

When I had my implants removed, my next doctor visit, days later, I had lost 13 pounds. That wasn’t 13 pounds of fat in 4 days, nor did my implants weigh 13 pounds! Haha.

That was my body finally being able to release years of inflammation.

My Body’s Inflammation

When I first had my breast augmentation procedure, I had been the same weight. I fluctuated by a pound or two but generally was the same weight day in and day out. Wait… let me back up for a second. I had lost over 50lbs prior and as you may know someone who’s lost that amount of weight, we are super hyper-focused on weight gain… even if it is a pound or two.

I knew exactly how much I weighed and when I came out of my first surgery, I was 15 pounds heavier. It was instantly. But I chalked this up to the weight of my new breasts and the effects of surgery. But as hard as I tried, for years and years, I always stayed 10 pounds over my plateaued weight loss, pre-breast implant days. That was the beginning!

Then I began to have major symptoms. More weight gain, major teeth issues, and inflammation in my knees to where I couldn’t walk some days. I started having issues with mental cognition and focus, irregular periods which led to becoming perimenopausal at a young age, low libido, liver issues, hair loss, heart palpitations, and eventually being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

You want to know what was even worse?? Not sure it could get worse but it did. My boyfriend at the time said my body at times would smell so bad, almost like a metal smell. It was so bad he could barely sleep next to me!

In tears, I brought this up to my doctor. She said that can happen when your liver is filtering so many toxins and it seeps out of your skin! Hmm… Wonder where those toxins were coming from?!

What Do Breast Implants Do to the Body?

Those are just some of the symptoms I had with my breast implants. Most of them have gone away after explanting 16 months ago.

I know this was all caused by my breast implants. Why? Because… All implants are made from silicone.

When my doctor first talked to me about Breast Implant Illness, the first words to come out of my mouth were… ‘Oh, I’m fine. I have saline breast implants’. I remember it like it was yesterday… haha!

You know how earlier I said, the idea of breast implants came from those silicone blood bags? Well, today’s breast implants haven’t changed. Whatever your choice of implants are, they are all in a silicone casing. And that casing is slowly poisoning your body.

The Silicone Shell

That casing or outer shell of EVERY implant is made from a silicone mixture. The silicone shell contains Methyl ethyl ketone (neurotoxin), Ethylene oxide (carcinogen), Oakite (clean solvent), Bezene (carcinogen/neurotoxin… yep, the same Bezene that causes lymphoma), and what caught my eye… Formaldehyde!

Those are just some of the metals and toxins in the shell alone. The list goes on and on, but you get the idea!

What happens is, over time these toxins begin to break down from the shell and they become absorbed into your body. What’s scary about it is, these implants are so close to your most vital organs. This is when your body goes into fight mode.

Remember Esmerelda the dog, the one dog breast implants were tested on before going into a woman’s body? Do you think the dog just didn’t like the lump in her chest or do you think it might have been causing some major irritation to her and that’s why she crewed it out?! Interesting thought, right?

Toxins and Your Body

So, you put breast implants into your body. Then after a while (or immediately in some women), your body starts to recognize the foreign object, and in our case, 2 foreign objects, and the products that are being leaked from them. This is where our highly intelligent bodies begin to send out antibodies to destroy them and protect us in any way they can!

This is when the inflammation starts and, all those symptoms we mentioned above may follow suit. It’s no surprise our bodies recognize these foreign objects and then starts reacting.

Remember… our liver is our bodies filtration system, but when it’s overloaded with toxins a lot of bad things begin to happen!

Removing the Breast Implants Capsule

Not only are these toxins filtered through our liver, they leak into our bodies, and also are stored in the breast capsule. I’m sure you are now thinking, what in the world is a breast capsule?

When your breast implants are first placed inside of your body, either under or above the muscle, they just sit there. Then over time, the body forms a protective capsule around any object it recognizes as foreign. The tissue capsule is usually soft or slightly firm, not really noticeable, and surgeons believe it helps to keep the implant in place.

But this capsule acts like a little sponge. As your implant begins leaking those toxins, that capsule starts sucking and storing whatever comes it’s way. It’s another way your body is protecting yourself from this foreign invader.

This is why many women choose to have Capsulectomy done when having an explant. This is very important, as the capsule is a protective layer of tissues, it’s your body’s first line of defense, a protector from these toxins that absorbs whatever toxins it can. If you leave the capsule in after your explant, your body will continue to have toxins and metals filter throughout the body from that scar tissue.

This why a good surgeon, will recommend having the capsule removed when explanting your breast implants. But an even better surgeon will never recommend a breast augmentation with implants in the first place!

The Truth About Breast Implants

By now I’m sure your head is probably swirling. As you can see there are so many layers to having breast implants and the sad thing is… we aren’t being told the truth about any of this.

And why we would be told the truth?

You will never be told ANY of this from an industry growing in the billions every year! It is the number one cosmetic surgery in the world and it’s making surgeons millions of dollars every day.

Why tell us that this device, (we have been told, we must have, so we can feel sexy, young, and whole again), will make us sick or even kill us?

Our Truths

If you want to know the truth, find a doctor who refuses to do breast implants and ask them why? Read stories of women who have experienced what I have gone through and more. Watch documentaries like Explant by Michelle Visage, which uncovers some dark secrets that aren’t being shared with us when we decided to go under the knife.

Breast implants are dangerous to our bodies, and our mental and physical health. We don’t need them to be whole, or to feel sexy or young again. They will age us faster than we ever imagined!

With an autoimmune disease, irreversible damage to my mental and physical health, loss of nipple sensation, many deep scars and scar tissue, half a right breast, and more surgeries ahead of me… I tend to wonder, was having the perfect breast, I was convinced  I had to have… ever really worth it?!

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