Surgery has Risks

Like with all surgeries, you always go in knowing that something potentially could go wrong. Usually it won’t but sometimes it will, and some people have died from breast implant surgery. Risks from surgery include infection, hematoma (blood or tissue collecting around an implant), and serious complications that can happen with anesthesia. Infections are usually easy to treat, but doctors have reported that some women have gotten toxic shock syndrome from infections, and others have gotten gangrene.

The main risks from breast implants are not from the surgery itself. The main risks are what happens in the months and years after the surgery. You should keep those risks in mind while making your decision.

A few side effects…so you know how the result may turn out

• Implant surgery can cause you to lose sensitivity in your breasts, especially in your nipples. Or your breasts can become so sensitive that it is painful to be touched. Either problem may dampen sexual intimacy.

• You may suffer from capsular contracture: 
This is when scar tissue forms around the implant (because it is a foreign body), and causes your breasts to become unnaturally hard, painful, have an unnatural shape, or become lopsided.

This young woman’s breasts look unnatural and the left one is a different shape than the right because of capsular contracture.

• If you get saline implants, they could make a swishing sound that you or others near you can hear.

• Breasts with saline implants tend to feel unnaturally cool compared to real, warmer breasts.

• If you snowboard, ice skate, or play in the snow, your saline implants may feel very uncomfortably cold.

And when you’re older…

Even if you’re not concerned with the future right now, the truth is that getting older is inevitable. So, it is very important to think about any risks breast implants could give you that would affect your life in the years to come.

• Do you ever want to have kids? Breast feeding your children is extremely important to their health. Research shows that women with implants are more likely to have an inadequate supply of milk for their babies, or nursing could be painful. So if having healthy babies is important to you, you may want to delay breast implants until afterwards.

• Breast Cancer: The idea of breast cancer may not have even crossed your mind yet, but when you get older and need mammograms, implants interfere with being able to detect cancer early. Even the best mammograms will miss up to half of the breast area where cancer can grow, because it will be hidden by the implants.

Life-threatening Risks

Below is a list of what research shows about the risks of getting breast implants. Keep these dangers in mind before making your decision.

According to the National Cancer Institute, compared to other plastic surgery patients, women with breast implants are:

• Twice as likely to die from brain cancer

• Three times as likely to die from lung cancer

• Four times as likely to kill themselves

According to an FDA study there may be a link between implants and some auto-immune and connective tissue diseases.  A link to fibromyalgia (which causes chronic muscle pain and severe fatigue) has also been found.

Who Should Avoid Breast Implants?

Implants are riskier for some girls and women than others. If you have had an autoimmune disease or if family members do (such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or chronic fatigue syndrome), you should not take the chance of a foreign body like breast implants. If you are concerned about breast cancer, you should not get implants since they interfere with detecting breast cancer early by interfering with mammograms.

Need more facts?

The two implant companies that can legally sell saline breast implants in the U.S., Mentor and Inamed, conducted their own studies about the risks of saline implants.

If you’re considering silicone gel breast implants, read about an implant makers’ own studies of silicone gel implants here.

Some other risks to consider…

Money

Breast augmentation surgery usually costs about $4,000 to $6,000). If a doctor is charging less than that, be very cautious. Make sure he or she is a board-certified plastic surgeon and is very experienced with implants.

Paying this kind of money is not a one-time deal. You will need to spend more money to replace your implants when they break or wear out, or pay to have them removed even if you don’t want them replaced. Even if the implant is under warrantee, or if your doctor offers his services for free if problems arise, the anesthesia and other fees will still total thousands of dollars.

Health insurance will not cover breast augmentation, and usually will not pay the cost of medical care if you have problems that need to be fixed. Even if your implant breaks or is causing an allergic reaction, health insurance probably will not pay the cost of medical care. You will either have to ask your parents to pay to fix or replace the implants, or take out a loan yourself to cover the costs.

We have heard from teens and young women who arranged to pay off their augmentation on a monthly basis, but then needed to have them removed before they had finished paying for the implants themselves. Going into debt to get implants is risky. Our advice: only get implants if you can afford to have them removed if something goes wrong.

Your Looks

Almost every teenage girl is concerned with her looks, and that is obviously the reason some get implants. If breast implants gave every girl beautiful breasts for the rest of her life, that might seem like a good idea. However, augmented breasts that look natural at first, can change and look and feel much less natural and less attractive in just a few months or years. We’ve heard from celebrities who were embarrassed to be hugged because their breasts were so hard.

If you need to have your implants removed, they may look very saggy and stretched out – not nearly as good as they looked before you got implants.

That is definitely not what you want to accomplish.

What do we mean by looking unnatural? Some girls describe their “new” breasts as looking like two balls attached to their chest. Others find that one breast is much higher than it should be, or you can see or feel the implant. If the breasts look round and if there is space between the breasts instead of cleavage, those are two common signs of breast implants.

Keep in mind…

You’re still growing! Even if you’ve heard this before, it’s still true. Not only may your breasts still be growing, but the rest of your body could be too. Most teens find their breasts look more voluptuous in their early 20’s than they did in their teens, without augmentation.

Also, you may want to wait a little longer to see if you really want implants, or if you are still experiencing normal teenage self-consciousness. The truth is, the older you get, the more accepting you become of your body and the better you feel about yourself. Research on girls ages 11-18 found that girls liked their body more every year. In other words, older teens feel better about their bodies than younger teens. The study also found that the features that girls were most dissatisfied with reflected the ideal looks emphasized in books, mass media and advertisements.

Immediately after surgery
Most women are happy with their appearance immediately after getting breast implants, after the pain goes away and the swelling goes down. Of course, it is important to be very clear with your plastic surgeon about what you want, so that you end up with a size and position that you are comfortable with.

While most women are pleased with how they look, they are not always as happy with how their breasts feel. You may have numbness in your nipple area. It may go away, or the numbness may last forever. This is a common complication, and one that many women don’t talk about but can interfere with their sexual pleasure. Or the opposite can happen: your breasts may be supersensitive and painful to the touch. This too may go away, or last forever.

If you have pain or other problems that are not going away as quickly as expected, contact your surgeon.

Emotional Changes
Are men staring at your breasts instead of looking at your face when you talk? Some women feel fine about that, but others complain that they can’t get used to it. In fact, women who undergo breast reduction surgery often say how they appreciate the feeling that people are looking them in the eye instead of at their chest. So, this is something to think about before you get breast implants.

Some women feel very confident after getting implants, while others feel self-conscious. You might try falsies for a few weeks before surgery to see how you feel.

Saline Implants
Women with saline breast implants sometimes complain that the salt water implant doesn’t warm up the way a natural breast does, so their breasts feel cool rather than warm. The implants can get unpleasantly cold in very cold weather, according to women who like ice-skating and similar sports. Women with saline implants also complain that the implants may make a swooshing water noise that makes them feel self-conscious. This doesn’t change over time, but you may get used to it.

After a few months or years:
The appearance of your augmented breasts will change over time. The most common complication is capsular contracture, which is when the scar tissue capsule that forms around the implant becomes too small for the implant. It feels tight and makes the breast feel harder. This often starts with the breasts feeling a little firm, but after a few months or years breasts can get very hard and painful – a bursting feeling – and the shape may look unusual or unnatural, or the two breasts might look quite different from each other. Some women with capsular contracture say that it looks like they have baseballs (or melons) attached to their chest. Many women with capsular contracture tell us they avoid hugging friends because the hardness is embarrassing.

Eventually, all implants will break. When a saline implant breaks or leaks, it will probably deflate within hours and the breast will be much smaller. Surgery is required to remove the broken implant. Silicone gel implant ruptures are usually slower and can even go unnoticed in some women for years. Suddenly, years after the leak started, a woman may realize that the breast is smaller than it was. Other women who have a silicone gel leak or rupture can experience a painful burning sensation, or see lumps that may look like cancer but are actually filled with silicone.

Very large breasts can be heavy and cause back problems. That’s why women who are naturally well-endowed sometimes get breast reduction surgery. Getting very large silicone gel breast implants could eventually cause back pain or problems just as naturally large breasts do.

One rather common local complication with saline implants, particularly in women who are very thin, is a wrinkling appearance of the breast. This usually will not improve without surgery, but can’t always be corrected even with surgery.

What if I get a rash?
A rash might mean you are having an allergic reaction to the implant. Rashes may go away, or not. See a physician if you get a rash that doesn’t go away quickly.

What if my breast feels hot, looks red, or is very painful?
These can be signs of an infection. See a physician immediately for treatment.

What if my breast gets swollen months or years after getting implants?
If this isn’t caused by an infection (see above) you should get tested for ALCL, which is a cancer of the immune system that can be caused by breast implants.  ALCL means Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma.

What if I am unhappy with how my breasts look?
Plastic and cosmetic surgeons try to achieve the best possible results, but some augmentation surgeries are more successful than others, and of course some surgeons are more experienced than others. Remember that surgery results are not always perfect, and that additional surgery can’t necessarily make them perfect. Your body is not a lump of clay, and can’t be shaped exactly as you’d like it.

Did you know that any physician can call himself or herself a plastic or cosmetic surgeon, even if they are not trained or experienced in surgery? Make sure that your doctor really is trained, experienced, and board-certified in plastic surgery, not through some other kind of medical program. And, it is usually safer to go to a surgeon in the country where you live, so that if problems arise you can go back for assistance.