I came across a post on the Breast Implant Illness Instagram site recently that really made me really cranky. And it made me want to holler, “STOP THE FEAR MONGERING!”
Let me walk you through this image. Obviously it is a lady and in the upper left corner you can see her breasts which have been removed and placed on a serving tray. Um, very edgy. And you can see the chest width slash across her chest where her breasts used to be.
The Breast Implant Illness community is on a mission to ban all breast implants, saline and gel, for enhancement and for reconstruction. Their modus operandi is to scare the bejesus out of anyone who has breast implants, has had breast implants or is thinking about getting breast implants. I find their IG posts mostly rather boring especially when it is the same set of moldy and/or ruptured implants that have been posted half a dozen times already. But this post really crosses the line. This post implies that breast implant removal requires a double mastectomy and an incision across the width of the chest. I have been doing breast implant removal for over 26 years and I have never, make that NEVER had to do a mastectomy or use an incision of this length. And most of my patients look better after parting ways with their implants. I see ladies in my office frequently with old, hard, nasty implants who have suffered with pain and tightness and embarrassment for years but have been fearful to seek implant removal because they equate implant removal with mastectomy. Disinformation like this IG post feeds that fear and is a disservice to women.
Posting this sort of rubbish must provide a certain type of person with a feeling of satisfaction and self worth. As for me, I prefer to satisfy myself by providing careful, competent and reality based care for women seeking breast implant removal. If you want to see what breast implant removal really entails, I have a ton of information on this web site and also my IG: @breastimplantsanity.
Thanks for reading. Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder
@lisalynnsowder
