The Very Real Consequences of Breast Implant Illness

This largely unknown and misunderstood condition seems to be affecting more and more women

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Janna Durkee, a nurse and active mother of four, was having unexplained symptoms for years, but testing always yielded normal results.

After two severe allergic reactions a few months apart—one being so severe that she'd called an ambulance—she was scared.

“Something is desperately wrong with me,” she remembers thinking. Mrs. Durkee had a feeling of impending doom that wasn’t lessened by her doctor’s inability to tell her what was wrong.

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She had more blood drawn, a mammogram, and a breast ultrasound. They all showed normal results. Then, she stumbled across a Facebook group that her friend had shared and everything changed. It was called Breast Implant Illness and Healing by Nicole. The group presently has more than 180,000 members.

“When I started diving into all these ladies’ stories, it clicked,” she said. “I could see myself in so many of these ladies’ stories.”

Breast implants and their failure have fed personal horror stories related to a range of symptoms—and doctors telling these women that it’s all in their heads.

What is Breast Implant Illness?

Although not an official disease diagnosis, breast implant illness (BII) is a complex collection of symptoms that occur in previously healthy women after having breast implants. It can affect the entire body and include physical and psychological symptoms that are often severe and debilitating. The symptoms are so numerous and varied that it’s difficult for doctors to arrive at a diagnosis, and it confounds many of them.

In 2020, the top 10 symptoms reported to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) medical device report database experienced by patients with breast implant illness were fatigue (49 percent), brain fog (25 percent), joint pain (25 percent), anxiety (24 percent), hair loss (21 percent), depression (19 percent), rash (18 percent), autoimmune diseases (18 percent), inflammation (18 percent), and weight problems (18 percent).

Because symptoms can be so diverse, vague, and disconnected, it often takes time for women to make the connection that they might be a result of their implants. Doctors, too, often don’t make the association, and many are unaware of BII.

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For more than a decade, between 2006 and 2019, breast augmentation surgery was the most popular cosmetic surgical procedure in the United States, and according to recent statistics, there were 364,753 breast augmentation surgeries in the United States in 2021, making it second only to liposuction in popularity, though The American Society of Plastic Surgeons say the numbers are dropping.

With so many women having breast augmentation, the number who experience symptoms could be significant.

A Controversial Diagnosis

The issue is complicated by the fact that some doctors, surgeons, and other medical professionals don’t believe that BII is real, with many chalking it up to a kind of hysteria fueled by social media.

“Breast implant illness (BII) is a condition characterized by elusive diagnostic criteria and self-reported diverse disabling and distressing physical and psychological symptoms,” a research review published in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in 2022 titled “Breast Implant Illness (BII): Real Syndrome or a Social Media Phenomenon?” noted.

The authors wrote that the condition is “perhaps becoming the most controversial subject in aesthetic and reconstructive breast surgery, generating heated debates between those who do not believe such a condition exists and those who demand its acceptance as a recognized diagnosis.”

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There’s no single diagnostic test for breast implant illness, and many women who suspect that they have symptoms caused by their breast implants turn to their doctors looking for answers. Unfortunately, many women are told that there’s nothing wrong with them, that their implants could not possibly be the cause of their symptoms, or that their symptoms are all in their heads.

Because BII isn’t well understood and the symptoms are so diverse, many doctors either don’t know about the condition or haven’t connected the dots between the wide range of symptoms and the possibility that breast implants could be the cause. Other doctors and surgeons don’t believe it’s a real condition.

The FDA, however, is aware of BII and has been since at least 2019, when it released a statement that read, “The current evidence supports that some women experience systemic symptoms that may resolve when their breast implants are removed, referred to by some patients and health care professionals as breast implant illness.”

BII is associated with a variety of symptoms that can include, but aren’t limited to:

• joint and muscle pain
• brain fog
• rashes and other skin problems
• chronic fatigue
• problems with memory and concentration
• sleep problems and disturbances
• depression
• anxiety
• panic attacks
• allergies
• thyroid problems
• gastrointestinal issues
• recurring infections
• persistent viral and bacterial infections
• palpitations
• frequent candida or urinary tract infections
• autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Hashimoto’s disease
• diagnosis of cancers
• rapid weight loss or gain
• shortness of breath
• burning sensation
• hair loss
• metallic taste in the mouth
• numbness and tingling in the upper and lower limbs
• vertigo
• headaches
• migraines
• tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
• difficulty swallowing
• fibromyalgia
• sudden food intolerances and food allergies, and
• an overwhelming feeling of doom or that you’re going to die

In 2006, the FDA ended a 14-year ban on silicone-gel breast implants despite decades of debate over safety concerns and a mountain of litigation from women who'd claimed the implants leaked and made them sick, causing conditions that included rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.

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At the time, the FDA approved the manufacture of implants by two California companies, Mentor and Allergan, for breast reconstruction and cosmetic breast augmentation and limited the cosmetic use of the implants to women aged 22 and older.

Recent Recall of Breast Implants

In 2019, the FDA called for a worldwide recall of all textured breast implants from the pharmaceutical company Allergan. The FDA requested Allergan recall the implants because of a drastic increase in a rare and deadly form of cancer called breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma that’s been associated with Allergan’s Biocell textured implants.

Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma is an immune system cancer that develops in the scar tissue capsule that forms around the breast implants.

Of 1,130 cases of the disease reported to the FDA, 953 patients had Allergan implants, and of the 59 deaths reported from the disease, 34 of the deceased patients had Allergan implants as of April 2022, according to FDA statistics.

Similar recalls have occurred in France, Australia, and Canada, and Allergan halted the sale of its textured implants in Europe.

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The FDA first identified a link between breast implants and cancer in 2011, noting that recent reports had suggested that women with breast implants were more susceptible to being diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

The worldwide recall fueled new debate over breast implant safety and the potential cancer risk and shone a light on the growing number of women who’ve been experiencing breast implant illness.

On October 24, 2019, the FDA issued a black box warning for breast implants; a black box warning is the most serious warning mandated by the FDA and the last step before a ban. The warning is intended to inform the public about the risk that breast implants can cause systemic symptoms (BII) in some patients and also about the connection between textured implants and breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Women Helping Women

Not getting the help that they needed from the medical community, tens of thousands of women who suffer from the condition have coalesced on social media to share their stories and support each other through the often confusing and painful process—getting the implants, their removal (explant surgery), and the long road to recovery.

Danica Patrick opened up recently in a series of interviews about her experience with BII; she urged women with breast implants to have them removed and to trust their intuition when they first suspect something is wrong. In an interview with People magazine, the former NASCAR driver said that she made the decision to get breast implants in 2014 in her quest to attain “an ideal body.”

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Within a few years, Ms. Patrick began experiencing symptoms that she said included fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, hormonal problems, heavy metal toxicity, dysbiosis, and leaky gut, which led to a diagnosis of BII and the removal of her implants in March 2022. She said that it helped her to go on YouTube and other social media platforms to learn about so many other women’s BII stories.

Recovery After Explant Surgery

Through recommendations from women in the group, Mrs. Durkee was able to find a surgeon qualified to perform the explant surgery to safely remove her breast implants. Removal of the implants and the capsule, which is the scar tissue that grows around the implant, is what many surgeons and countless women believe must be done to make a full recovery.

Within months, Mrs. Durkee had the surgery; two weeks afterward, she made a Facebook post that read:

“I will be two weeks post op tomorrow, and I can tell you that the joint pain I had is gone, the brain fog is lifting, heart palpitations are minimal and only if I have some coffee, dry eyes are gone, the blurred vision is better, red eyes clear, and the extreme thirst I had is gone. I’m pretty happy with that for only two weeks out. I’m still recovering, so I can’t really say about the fatigue yet, but I am hopeful.”