Breast Implants :: Disease conditions related to breast implants

Some women with breast implants have reported health problems that they believe are related to their implants, but most studies of these diseases have failed to show an association with breast implants.

There also have been concerns about possible, but unproven, effects on health. Most of the health concerns about breast implants are related to the body reacting to a foreign material, such as silicone gel.

These diseases are discussed below.

Connective Tissue Diseases (CTDs) and Related Disorders

These are a group of diseases and disorders related to the immune system and to the connective tissue of the body (e.g., muscle, tendon, bone, etc.) that supports body structures and binds body parts together. The body’s immune system is the network of cells that protect against infectious diseases. Antibodies are one type of substance the body produces to fight off infectious agents.

The cause of CTDs is unknown. Some CTDs have autoimmune characteristics in that a woman’s immune system attacks her own cells as if they were foreign.

CTDs with autoimmune characteristics include:

lupus
rheumatoid arthritis
polymyositis
dermatomyositis
progressive systemic sclerosis or scleroderma.

CTDs without autoimmune characteristics include:

fibromyalgia
chronic fatigue syndrome.

Some women with breast implants have experienced the diseases or disorders listed above, as well as a variety of signs and symptoms that could be related to the immune system or to the connective tissues of the body. However, these signs and symptoms are not considered a defined disease or disorder.

These signs and symptoms include:

pain and swelling of joints
tightness
redness or swelling of the skin
swollen glands or lymph nodes
unusual or unexplained fatigue
swelling of the hands and feet
excessive hair loss
memory problems
headaches
muscle weakness or burning.

Signs and symptoms, such as those mentioned above, may be present in women without CTD or related disorders or in women without breast implants. Individual cases alone cannot scientifically prove or disprove a connection between CTDs and related disorders and breast implants.

Some doctors and women have thought that these signs and symptoms are part of a new disease which is related to silicone and have called the disease “human adjuvant disease,” “silicone related syndrome,” “atypical disease,” or other names.

The diagnosis of this condition could depend on the presence of a number of symptoms that are nonspecific and common in the general population. Thus, there does not appear to be even suggestive evidence of a novel [new] syndrome in women with breast implants.

So, it is unclear at this time whether or not the signs and symptoms experienced by these women are related to their implants. In some cases, women have reported fewer symptoms after the implants were removed. In other cases, there was no change in signs and symptoms after the implants were removed.

Studies have shown that some women with silicone gel-filled breast implants produced antibodies to their own collagen (a connective tissue protein), but we do not know how often these antibodies occur in the general population, and there are no data that show these antibodies cause CTDs and related disorders.

There are reports of women with implants who have a variety of autoantibodies. (Autoantibodies are antibodies that your body makes that accidentally target your own tissues.) However, the presence of these autoantibodies does not mean that a woman has an increased risk of actually developing a CTD or related disorder.

When considered together, these studies indicate that the risk of developing a typical or defined CTD or related disorder due to having a breast implant is low. However, these studies have not been large enough to resolve the question of whether or not breast implants slightly increase the risk of CTDs or related disorders. Researchers must study a large group of women without breast implants who are of similar age, health, and social status and who are followed for a long time (such as 10-20 years) before a relationship between breast implants and these diseases can conclusively be made.

There have been reports of women with fibromyalgia following breast implants, and a preliminary study conducted by FDA41 found an association between self-reported fibromyalgia and extracapsular rupture diagnosed by MRI. However, this association has not been repeated in a similar study based on a large group of Danish women42 and the weight of the epidemiological evidence published in the literature does not support an association between fibromyalgia and breast implants.

Cancers

Breast cancer is no more common in women with breast implants than those without breast implants. While not conclusive, cancer rates have been reported to be slightly higher for some types of cancers. Cancers rates that have been higher in more than one study are lung and vulva. Because these cancers may be related to other factors that were not examined in these studies (such as smoking) these studies are not conclusive.


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