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PERSONAL COMMENTARY

In the last 10 years I have spoken to thousands and thousands of women who have had breast implants who have asked me questions about the safety of breast implants and the resulting controversy pertaining to the horrendous symptoms that these women are experiencing. My initial responses were to direct these questions to their medical doctors as I felt they were more eminently qualified to comment on the safety of silicone breast implants and the correlation or lack of correlation of the resulting autoimmune symptoms.

Throughout the years more and more of my clients and other people that I have spoken to are confused by the conflicting information they have been provided by their treating doctor. At one time the majority of the doctors unequivocally stated that there was no data that clearly demonstrates that silicone is harmful. There was a small minority of doctors who were actively treating women with autoimmune diseases who also had implants, that had open minds and agreed that there was a possibility that silicone might cause autoimmune diseases leading to joint pains, chronic fatigue and other nonspecific complaints.

I have come in contact with many doctors who have gone so far out of their way to be unsympathetic toward the plight of their patients in emphatically denying that there is any correlation between silicone breast implants and autoimmune diseases. I realize it is difficult to truly know whether breast implants are the cause of these autoimmune symptoms or if these patients would have experienced these symptoms without ever having exposure to silicone. However, while I am not a medical doctor (although I am well versed in the medical field) it is my personal opinion that if you put anything foreign or toxic into your body it is harmful.

While my opinion is not the opinion that truly counts, I think it is important that my clients and potential clients understand my personal beliefs. I feel one day soon medical studies will come out that will conclusively correlate a link between breast implants and autoimmune diseases.

Most people do not realize that they are exposed to silicone in their normal environment. Silicone is used to lubricate syringes and in many medical devices. Many people besides breast implant recipients are exposed to silicone. However, it goes without saying that breast implant recipients are exposed to a larger amount of silicone in a less reversible way than are other implant recipients.

One of the continuing complaints that I have heard from implant patients throughout the years is that they were not told by their surgeon of the dangers of having silicone implants. Although they signed every kind of form that protected the doctor from liability, they were told verbally in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s that the implants would last a lifetime. This is simply not true. One could put toxic chemicals into a barrel drum and seal it up, but after so many years, the toxic chemicals will start to eat the metal in the drum and corrode it to the point where it leaks.

Most of my clients do not realize that implants bleed a small amount of silicone normally through their shell and this may move to areas away from the implant. It is unfortunate that the MDL-926 Claims Board and the Settlement Facility-Dow Corning Trust will not accept or pay rupture benefits to claimants who had implants that had silicone bleed, leakage, seepage, weeping or micro-tear. This is truly sad that these women who have had leakage of silicone from their implants will not be paid for rupture benefits.

The truth is that the implant shell will break as time passes and when this happens, larger amounts of silicone will move away from the breast area to other tissues where it simply cannot be removed. I have read silly statistics that only 4% of implants break. There is no doubt in my mind that as the implants are in for longer and longer periods of time, more of them will break. More and more medical studies have come out that have documented (like all man-made things) the implants wear out. If you think about it, every time a woman moves the overlying muscle, the implant is bending a little bit each time. I have spoken to many medical doctors that have tested thousands of implants that have been removed, and they feel that over time the material will gradually fatigue and will finally break.

So many women ask me if they should have their implants removed and if so, should they have saline or silicone replacement implants put back in. Many other women are convinced their implants are leaking and their health is failing but they do not have the funds to have the implants removed. The hardest thing for a woman to know is “when” her implant has ruptured. The body forms a barrier of connective tissue around the implants which tends to hold the silicone in place for a period of time after the implant breaks. The situation varies for each person and the period of time might be very short or very long.

Many women who are in this situation are left with making a choice of the lesser of two evils. On one hand they want the implant removed and they do not want to put any further foreign substances into their body. This of course will mean that the woman will return to being smaller in the breast size and the breast will more than likely appear to be more sagging. The more time that passes when the implants were placed, the breast normally sags with time. The implants can also make the problem worse by stretching the skin. Obviously the safest choice is to remove the implant and not put anything back. In this way you do not have to worry about further operations.

I have noticed more and more women having silicone replacement implants put in through new medical studies involving Mentor and McGhan implants. It is quite ironic that the two largest breast implant manufacturers in the United States today, McGhan and Mentor were two companies that paid extremely limited benefits in the earlier MDL-926 Class Action. Mentor Corporation had filed for bankruptcy and the most a Mentor claimant could have received in the MDL-926 Class Action was $1,519.00. Inamed, the parent company for McGhan, did not fulfill their financial responsibility to the funding of the MDL-926 Class Action, and therefore McGhan’s claimants were only paid at 80%. Inamed then formed their own limited class action to apparently compensate all the claimants who did not receive their full awards, and ultimately only paid $725.00 to each claimant who had a Mentor or Cox-Uphoff implant.

Many other women are having their implants replaced with saline implants. The implants accomplished their original goals as it pertains to personal appearance and self-confidence. However, saline implants do not feel quite as natural as silicone implants and that is one of the reasons why silicone implants were the choice of most plastic surgeons and patients when they were available.

The advantage of a saline implant over a silicone implant is that if a saline implant breaks, they leak salt water, which is a normal body substance. While there are even medical doctors that disagree on the safety of saline implants, at the present time there is no documentation that when saline implants break that harm is done to the body. A big advantage over silicone implant leakage is that when a saline implant leaks, the breast gets smaller very quickly and it is less difficult to discover that a leakage has occurred.

To this day I am still approached by many women who have not had breast implants but want to have them and they ask my advice on the safety of having implants. My answer is that although you may get a number of years of cosmetic benefits from the new implants, you eventually will need a replacement. Each time that you undergo a surgery there are risks of anesthesia and other risks to your life and health that you must consider. There are also financial expenses. After speaking to so many thousands of women who have had some of the most horrific life-altering symptoms and trauma that may never be reversed, my answer unequivocally is “Unless you are willing to suffer the consequences and pain and suffering in the future . . . don’t.”

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