Breast Expansion - THE HIDDEN RISKS OF BREAST IMPLANTS YET UNKNOWN TO MOST WOMEN!

There are many hidden risks of breast implants yet unknown to most women. Before we go through in details let us explore some facts about breast implants.

A breast implant is a fluid filled sac that is inserted under the breast tissue and is designed to enhance the size and to change its shape of a woman's breast.

Breast implants each vary according the surface of the shell (textured versus smooth), the shape of the implant (round versus shaped), profile (how far the implant sticks out), and the volume (size) of the implant.

Most implants consist of a shell, a filler and a patch that covers the manufacturer's hole.

The bulk of them are single lumen, although some have a lumen inside another lumen (double lumen).

Some breast implants have a fixed volume of filler while others are filled during the operation and others allow for adjustments to the volume of the filler.

There are two different types of breast implants.

saline-filled and silicone gel-filled.

Saline Implants

Saline-filled breast implants are silicone shells that are either pre-filled or filled with saline during surgery, and some of these allow for adjustments of the filler volume after surgery.

There are three types of saline implants.

The first is a single lumen implant that is generally filled up during the procedure with saline through a port. After the operation, the size of the implant remains the same.

The second type of saline implant is a single lumen implant that is filled during the procedure through a port. The size of the implant can be changed after the operation.

The third type of saline implant has a fixed volume of saline in it and has no valves for filling or removing saline.

Silicone Gel-Filled Implants

Silicone gel-filled breast implants are silicone shells pre-filled with silicone gel. Breast implants vary in profile, size, and shell surface (smooth or textured).

Silicone implants, unlike saline, come pre-filled by the manufacturer. They thus require a slightly longer incision during the procedure. In many cases, they tend to feel softer and more natural than saline implants.

According to Diana Zuckerman, PhD; Elizabeth Nagelin-Anderson, MA; and Elizabeth Santoro, RN, MPH, highlighted that :

Because of safety concerns, silicone implants were banned for use in cosmetic surgery in 1992. However the FDA recently re-approved Silicone gel breast implants in November 2006. FDA also approved saline-filled breast implants in May 2000 for the first time. Between 1992 and 2006, silicone implants were restricted to clinical trials that were primarily for cancer patients and women with broken implants.

Patients were required to be informed that the implants were not approved by the FDA and to be regularly evaluated by their plastic surgeons as part of the study, in order to provide safety data intended to help all women with gel implants.

Although silicone gel breast implants made by two manufacturers were approved in November 2006, there are still restrictions.

For example,

FDA approved saline-filled breast implants for augmentation in women ages 18 and older. FDA approved silicone gel-filled implants for women ages 22 and older.

The age restrictions are different because the risks are different for the two products.

For example, silicone gel-filled implants will require frequent MRI monitoring to detect silent rupture (a rupture that can go undetected by you or your doctor).

There is no risk of silent rupture for saline-filled implants.

In addition, the health consequences of a ruptured saline-filled breast implant are different from those of a ruptured silicone gel-filled breast implant Further, they are only approved for women over the age of 22, because younger women are still developing physically and emotionally.

Breast augmentation is done for a number of reasons:

• Bring your upper body into better proportion with your lower body so as to improve your body image, appearance or self confidence.
• Dresses that fit you well around the hips are often too big in the bust line.
• You feel self-conscious wearing a swimsuit or form-fitting top.
• You are dissatisfied that your breasts never developed to the size you wanted.
• You wish to balance different breasts size and as reconstructive work after a mastectomy.
• You want to add firmness to breasts by restoring breast volume lost due to pregnancy, weight loss or aging.
• You want to replace breast tissue that has been removed due to cancer or trauma or that has failed to develop properly due to a severe breast abnormality

If you've ever wished you had fuller, shapelier breasts, you're not alone.

According to American Society of Aesthetic of plastic surgery, almost more than 300 000 American women, ranging from teenagers to retirees, receive breast implants or breast augmentation every year, with little is known about the long-term safety of breast implants.

This dramatic increase reflects a booming economy and other factors, including the widespread belief that breast implants are safe for long-term use.

However, the editorial seems to disregard the way that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory process works, and, even more surprising, the editorial, do not adequately consider the most recent research evidence of serious health problems linked to all breast implants, and especially silicone gel implants with reports of a possible link to auto-immune diseases.

In spite of the increasing number of women with breast implants, debate continues to swirl about their safety.

Many women are justifiably confused by the conflicting information they hear.

The following are some of the facts about what is known and not known about the risks of breast implants.


1) Surgical Risks Are Not A One Time Risk.

Surgical risks are highest immediately around the time of surgery, but complications can require additional surgery later when there is a need to remove and possibly replace broken or damaged implants with new ones, which will have similar risks to the initial surgery.

Saline implants are removed because they quickly deflate, causing the breasts to shrink within a day or two. The saline solution, which leaks into the body from a hole in the implant shell or a faulty valve, is harmless and can be easily absorbed by the body.

Silicone gel implants require removal because the silicone will eventually leak out and the gel can migrate outside the breast area.

Silicone breast implants, however, may show no signs that a rupture has occurred.

However, women with silicone breast implants should have regular MRI screenings to check for signs of ruptured breast implants.

Several factors can increase the chances of ruptured breast implants. These include:

* Damage by surgical instruments
* Excessive handling during surgery
* Compression during mammographic imaging
* Trauma or intense physical pressure
* Severe capsular contracture
* Stacking of implants (multiple implants per breast pocket)
* Normal implant wear caused by aging

Silicone implants are preferred because of their superior attributes to saline filled implants.

While a leaking saline implant does not cause much harm, what happens when the silicone leaks into the body?

With more than 300,000 breast implant surgeries per year this becomes an important question.
Studies of silicone breast implants suggest that most implants last 7-12 years, but some break during the first few months or years, while others last more than 15 years.

In a study conducted by FDA scientists, most women had at least one broken implant within 11 years, and the likelihood of rupture tends to increase over time.

In 21 percent of these instances, the silicone had migrated outside of the gel capsule and leaked into the lymph nodes and other organs.

If the silicone migrates outside the scar tissue, it can destroy healthy breast tissue.

Women with ruptured silicone implants can lose breast tissue as part of the removal surgery; in some cases, this may result in surgery that is similar to a mastectomy.

However, there are no published data on how often this occurs.

2) Chemicals Remain Within The Body.

A German study of the scar tissue surrounding removed implants found that the tissue was commonly impregnated with chemicals from the implant, and showed evidence of chronic inflammation occurring there.

3) Breast Implants May Affect Breastfeeding.

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), women with any kind of breast surgery, including breast implant surgery, are at least three times as likely to have an inadequate milk supply for breastfeeding.

Concerns about the safety of breast milk have also been raised, but there has not been enough research to resolve this issue.

A study of a small number of women with silicone gel breast implants found that the offspring born and breastfed after the mother had breast implants had higher levels of a toxic form of platinum in their blood than offspring born before the same women had breast implants.

4) Loss Of Nipple Sensitivity.

There could also be some loss of sensation or altered nipple sensation if the nerves to the nipple and aureole have been severed. This is quite a sacrifice for the sake of beauty!

5) Feeling Abnormal.

Some women are dissatisfied with the cosmetic results of breast implants, because their breasts look or feel unnatural or asymmetrical, or they can hear a "sloshing sound" from saline-filled implants. Problems like these can potentially interfere with sexual intimacy.

6) Infections.

Infection caused by bacteria entering through the incision, it usually does so within one to six weeks after surgery.

This can be cleared through taking antibiotics and in a serious cases will require the removal of the implant.

The infection must clear (which can take up to several months if it is severe) before the implant can be replaced.

Infections are known to increase the likelihood of capsular contracture.

Further, several researchers have shown that bacteria or mold can grow in saline implants and have expressed concerns about the bacteria or mold being released into the body if the implant breaks.

What effect that might have on a woman, or a nursing baby, has not been studied.

7) Cost Is The Main Concern.

Complications became more and more common for each year that the implant is in the body.

On average, implants last 7-12 years, and each replacement adds to the cost.

Even if the implant itself is replaced for free, or if the surgeon offers his or her services for free, the cost of the medical facility, anesthesiology, and other expenses can still cost many thousands of dollars for each surgery.

These expenses are affordable for some women, but not for others, and they are certainly more likely to be burdensome for a woman whose implant breaks after just a few months or years.

When the FDA approved silicone gel breast implants in November 2006, it stated that women with these implants should have a breast MRI three years after getting silicone implants and every two years after that.

The purpose of the MRIs is to determine if the silicone gel breast implants are ruptured or leaking, because there are often no symptoms.

Breast MRIs usually cost at least $2,000, and at some facilities they cost more than $5,000.

It is important to remove silicone implants if they are ruptured, to avoid the silicone leaking into the breast or lymph nodes.

That is an additional expense of at least $5,000, and can be $10,000 or more.

Saline implants do not require MRIs to check for leakage, and do not usually cost more than $5,000 to remove.

The cost of MRIs and the additional cost of removing leaking silicone makes silicone implants substantially more expensive than saline.

8) Sorry You Are Not Covered!

Typically, cosmetic surgery is not covered by health insurance, and problems resulting from cosmetic surgery are also excluded from coverage.

Health insurance will not pay for MRIs to check for silicone leakage for augmentation patients.

In some states, major health insurance providers do not insure women with breast implants.

Some insurers will sell health insurance to women with implants, but charge them more, and some insurers will not cover certain kinds of illnesses - or any problems in the breast area - for women with breast implants.

Obviously, this can be a terrible problem for women who are diagnosed with breast cancer or any other illnesses that are excluded, whether or not those diseases are related to the implants.

So just imagine, over 30,000 women a year have their implants surgically removed. Women are told to have scans every 2 years to detect leakages (not covered by insurance). Many women will need to have their implants replaced every 10 years at their own expense. Can you afford that?

9) Breast Implants May Interfere With Mammograms Screening.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women. Since mammograms have been shown to detect breast cancer earlier and thus save lives, unfortunately, implants can interfere with cancer detection during routine mammograms.

There are several ways in which implants have the potential to delay detection of breast cancer:

• Saline or silicone gel breast implants can make it difficult for the x-ray machine to see all of the breast tissue, creating the potential for tumors or other abnormalities to remain hidden.

• A study by FDA scientists indicates that silicone or saline implants can rupture when women undergo mammograms, and for this reason, women who fear implant rupture may forego mammograms.

• The accuracy of mammograms tends to decrease as the size of the implants increase in proportion to the size of the woman's natural breast.

10) Breast implants may be linked to auto-immune diseases.

FDA scientists conducted a study of women who had silicone gel breast implants for at least seven years and found that those with leaking implants were significantly more likely to report fibromyalgia, a painful auto-immune disease.

The risk of fibromyalgia remained even after controlling for patient's age, implant age, and implant manufacturer.

These researchers also found that women with leaking silicone implants were significantly more likely to report a diagnosis of at least one of the following painful and debilitating diseases, such as:
* Dermatomyositis
* Polymyositis
* Hashimoto's thyroiditis
* Mixed connective-tissue disease
* Pulmonary fibrosis
* Eosinophilic fasciitis
* Polymyalgia

11) Possibility May Lead To Capsular Contractual.

Scar tissue that forms naturally around any implant or foreign body can, in some cases, become hard or tight around the implant.

This common problem is called capsular contracture.

The scar tissue is inside the body, but it can cause the breasts to become very hard and misshaped, and it leads to discomfort that ranges from mild to severely painful.

The most likely treatment is to remove and replace the implants, but manufacturers' research indicates that the replacement implants are likely to cause even more complications than the original implants.

Also, additional surgery comes with additional risks and the expense can be much greater than the original surgery.

12) Possibility Of Rippling.

Rippling occurs when the filling material inside a breast implant shifts around and allows a wrinkle or fold to appear in the outer shell.

The result is a bump, ridge, or valley that can be felt and sometimes seen on the surface of the breast.

The external visibility of a breast implant depends on the thickness and quality of the patient's skin.

If an implant is large or there is little muscle or fatty tissue to conceal it, any rippling that occurs will be more noticeable.

Rippling is most likely to appear on the outer side of the breast, along the bottom of the breast, and toward the cleavage.

13) Looking Deformed And Unnatural

Whether you replace your implants or take them out, it's going to be quite a challenge to find any way, as an elderly woman, to have halfway natural looking breasts. If you have any plans to ever get old, bear in mind that by getting implants now you may be throwing away any chance of not looking deformed at that age.

14) You Have To Protect Your Implants.

A simple fall that would ordinarily only give you a bruising can create a major medical crisis if an implant gives way. The longer it's been in you, the more easily it will rupture.

Putting implants beneath the muscle -- something that is becoming popular because the shape comes out less obviously fake that way -- means that eventually just using your shoulder strongly will put you at risk (assuming that your shoulder still has its strength after the muscle has been distorted).

The extra care you need to protect and maintain the implants makes you just a little bit crippled as long as you have them.

15) Nerve Damage.

Any surgery on breasts can, and often does, damage nerves and reduce skin sensation. The amount of loss is unpredictable. The damage can't be reversed.

Attempts to reduce this effect have a tradeoff: they increase the visibility of the surgical scar. Complete numbness of the nipple is not unknown. In a smaller number of cases, the side effect is the opposite: painful hypersensitivity to touch.

1) Lack Of Self-Esteem.

If you feel inadequate being a woman, the problem to address is in your head, not your chest. Self esteem first, cosmetics after! If you ignore that, you are doomed to disappointment.

A lot of people who think a cosmetic change like this is going to fix their lives end up despondent and suicidal when they find they're still the same person with the same life.

This is such a common problem that cosmetic surgeons have to pay a lot of attention to weeding out patients who might be suicide risks. Getting chest surgery to improve your self-esteem is like buying a girdle to improve your eyesight: you're addressing the wrong problem.

2) Getting Implants Part Of Your Goal?

If you examine your goals, you may find they are not very rational or realistic.

Unless you're a professional model or are dedicating your whole life to the goal of marrying an elderly millionaire, the implants are probably not going to bring you much closer to what you really want.

What are you really after? You'd better take a hard look at that question before you act on the assumption that implants will get it for you.

3) Getting The Male Attention Will Make You Feel Better?

If you want more male attention, implants may increase the quantity but only with a corresponding decrease in quality.

You'll probably get your biggest gains in approval among guys who are most prone to objectifying you, and least prone to treating you as an equal.

The guys who like implants the best are those who prefer pornography to live women, and probably find ordinary women a turn-off if they're not somehow artificialized by things like fake hair, shaving, ridiculous shoes, and so on.

And don't forget that for every woman who complains that she doesn't get the male attention she wants, there's another complaining that she wishes she didn't have the amount she does get.

4) Stop Finding Fault With Your Body.

If you want to like your body better, the way to do it is to start liking the body you've got better. If your mindset toward your body is negative, no change of appearance will ever eliminate that!

If you think it will, you end up chasing an illusion. When you are in the habit of always finding fault with your body, you will never run out of faults to find... indeed, you'll only find more and more as you get older.

It's a trap, and changing your body won't get you out of it -- the one thing that will is to change the fault-finding way of treating yourself.

If you keep hitting your forehead with a rock, that doesn't mean you need a better stronger forehead -- it means it's time to put down the rock.

Although breast implant surgery has gained immense popularity as a means of achieving an appealing, well-proportioned breast size, there are risks with any type of surgery and breast augmentation is no different.

Research clearly shows that breast implants are associated with significant health, cosmetic, and economic risks within the first several years and these risks increase over time.

Unfortunately, long-term risks remain unknown because of a lack of careful scientific studies.

FDA has required implant manufacturers to conduct additional research to determine why implants break, how long they can be expected to last, and what the longer-term health consequences of broken and leaking breast implants might be.

Those studies, however, have not yet been conducted.

After reading about breast implants, you should give yourself time to make an informed decision about whether or not having breast implants are right for you.

You should decide whether or not you want to have breast implants based on what you think your outcome should be.

It is important to have realistic expectations.

There is no guarantee that what your breast implants will look like those of other women.

Think about how healthy you are now, what your chest structure is, your capabilities of healing such as whether you've had surgery, whether you smoke, if you have bleeding tendencies and the skill of the surgical team doing the procedure.

There are many implant and litigation horror stories that verify that complications can and do occur.

This is perhaps the reason why many women are seeking out natural methods to increase breast size to feel more confident and physically appealing.

Applying natural methods for breast growth or enhancement is really nothing new and has long been known and used in various cultures throughout the world dating back to the harem girls in the middle east. Modern science is becoming aware of the healthy aspects of natural methods and their role in making breasts grow bigger.

For your own research and to follow the stories and facts of some very successful natural methods that most women have tried and implemented, kindly visit breast expansion