Posts YouTube Video as Warning to Others
After nursing three kids, this mother found herself disappointed with her post-baby breasts, so she did what many moms consider: She went under the knife to perk up her other girls with saline implants. A scientist by profession, she didn't make the decision lightly, but instead says she spent hours researching the procedure, speaking with her surgeon, reading literature and considering the pros and cons of undergoing the knife and then living with implants after the fact.
A few months following the breast augmentation procedure she began experiencing medical problems, including chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and Raynaud's phenomenon, which can cause skin discoloration and numbness in the fingers and toes. After visiting numerous doctors to figure out the cause she found one who said that her illnesses were a direct result of the implants and that the implants must be removed.
Following the removal surgery she found that she tested positive for the HLA-B27 antigen, which means that she has a genetic predisposition for autoimmune disorders. This isn't abnormal: As reported by WebMd, nearly 50 million Americans, most of them women, suffer from autoimmune ailments, so many of us may have this predisposition to the nearly 60 autoimmune disorders that exist. Does this mean that doctors should routinely test patients for this antigen prior to surgery?
Right now we know this: Years of research have shown that no significant link exists between autoimmune disorders and breast implants. Dr. William A. Brennan MD, FACS, of Surgical Arts of Beverly Hills says that studies also show that women without breast implants get these autoimmune conditions at the same rate as women with breast implants. In addition, if a woman were to test positive prior to a surgery the best her doctor could say is that sometime in the future, breast implants or not, she may develop an autoimmune disorder.
However, Dr. Brennan adds, if a patient came into his office and was worried about the possible relationship between implants and an autoimmune disorder he would recommend that she not go through with the surgery. "The psychological burden of worrying about it for 30-40 years just overshadows the reasons for doing it in the first place, " he says.
So here's my question: If you knew that you had a predisposition towards an autoimmune disorder such as rheumatoid arthritis, would go through with the surgery?