Breast Implant Illness

Breast Implant Illness (BII) is a real thing to many patients and doctors, yet it’s not an official diagnosis, this maybe in part that it doesn’t have a way to be evaluated, other than ruling out other conditions like Lyme or arthritis, depending on the person\’s symptoms.

It is believed that it will soon be recognized according to the President for National Center for Health Research. While Breast Implant Illness seems to be getting more attention in part due to Facebook Groups, there is a doctor who has been treating it in Ohio since the 1990’s.

Women report various symptoms and can often be diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. These symptoms can start soon after the implants, or years later. It is also not dependent on silicone or saline. Interestingly both implant types have shells made from silicone

A good doctor would then try to assess what the trigger of autoimmunity is for each patient, and this is one trigger (BII) to be aware of.

While there are many symptoms that can be associated with BII, these are the most common:

Brain Fog
Fatigue
Joint Pain
Hair loss
Dryness: eyes/mouth

A few years ago, a doctor who has studied the connections of autoimmunity and breast implants gave a presentation to the FDA’s General and Plastic Surgery Devices Advisory Panel public meeting, watch it here.

A few notes from his talk:

Breast implants started in the 1960s and within a few years there were cases of patients reporting health problems after
Textured vs smooth implants seems to be less problematic, and The Netherlands almost exclusively uses textured
Silicone is not an inert substance, it can bleed into the body, or rupture
Capsules do form around the implants in nearly all
Many BII patients have allergies, and/or autoimmunity in their past history prior, so this could be risk factor
No human studies yet about how often it occurs
Autopsied patient showed silicone throughout the body, not just the breast
Increased rate of sjogren\’s 3x/higher, and increase risk of lymphoma
Study in Israel of Autoimmunity shows link to BII, worse after 10 years