EXCLUSIVECan a boob job kill you? The untold trauma of thousands of women suffering from 'Breast Implant Illness', leaving them in agony for years... yet some doctors refuse to accept it is real
When mother-of-three Holly took the drastic step of having both her breasts removed, she did so believing it might save her life.
Breast cancer had claimed her mother when Holly was just 14 and her own chances of developing the disease now stood close to 90 percent.
Yet within months of the surgery and the breast reconstruction that followed, Holly felt like she was closer to death than ever before – struggling with a range of debilitating conditions including chronic pain, blurred vision and difficulty breathing.
'I kept getting sicker and sicker,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I felt like I was going to die.'
It wasn't until Holly, 57, stumbled across a Facebook support group with 50,000 women whose symptoms matched her own that she believed she had finally discovered the cause of her illness: Breast Implant Illness, or BII.
There is little support for sufferers, with some medical professionals preferring to dismiss BII entirely, but an increasing number of women – from working moms to celebrities – are speaking out about their experiences.
An increasing number of women – from working moms to celebrities like Crystal Hefner (pictured with Hugh in 2010 before having her implants removed in 2016) – are speaking out about their experiences with breast implant illness.
Former Playboy model and alleged former mistress of Donald Trump, Karen McDougal, had hers taken out in 2016 (pictured in 2006).
Crystal Hefner, wife of late Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, had her breast implants removed in 2016 at the age of 38 telling Facebook followers that 'my breast implants slowly poisoned me'.
Another former Playboy model and alleged former mistress of Donald Trump, Karen McDougal, had hers taken out the same year.
'I would get sick every couple of months and be sick for six to eight weeks at a time,' McDougal told People magazine at the time. 'It just never went away.'
Still, despite these stories and BII cases being reported around the world for more than 30 years, the condition is neither widely researched nor well understood.
It is thought by medical professionals to be caused by either auto-immune or inflammatory responses to implants which, in turn, trigger a series of mental and physical conditions such as anxiety, rashes and chronic pain.
And the skyrocketing number of cases of women having their breast implants removed is difficult to ignore.
'Removals have been going up for the last five years,' confirms Dr Scot Glasberg, president of research group The Plastic Surgery Foundation.
Some 250,000 American women receive implants each year, and as many as 74,000 had their implants removed in 2023, a 40 percent increase from 2019, according to the latest data from The Aesthetic Society, a global organization of plastic surgeons.
Dr Glasberg says there is a 'host of reasons' behind the rise. '[Yet] the biggest is that women are worried about breast implant-related tumors and concerned over breast implant illness.'
Abbey Williamson, 28, from Columbus, Ohio, was told by multiple specialists told her she was 'crazy' for linking her debilitating symptoms to BII
She had her implants removed in 2023 and claims that her symptoms disappeared almost immediately
BII has been reported by women regardless of whether their breast implants remain intact or rupture and leak. And the physical toll can be crippling.
It certainly was for Holly, who found herself so sick she couldn't work while racking up $100,000 in medical bills.
She saw dozens of specialists in the ten years that followed the onset of her BII, yet none of them could figure out what was wrong.
Diagnosis of the condition can be uncertain.
Many plastic surgeons question whether the condition is truly real – 'Unfortunately, it hasn't reached the status of a defined illness [widely recognized by the medical community],' Dr Glasberg said.
'There is no test that can tell us you have it,' he explains. 'There's no imaging test, women come with a whole host of symptoms.'
That can be a major obstacle for women desperately seeking help.
This lack of concrete medical advice has left thousands of American women with nowhere to go, resorting to online forums and support groups for guidance.
One such group, Breast Implant Illness and Healing by Nicole, has more than 190,000 members, receiving over 70 posts a day from women sharing symptoms and asking for advice.
Abbey Williamson, 28, from Columbus, Ohio, first discovered the group after multiple specialists told her she was 'crazy' for linking her debilitating symptoms to BII.
The police officer and mother-of-one had silicone implants put in in 2020 after feeding her daughter changed the shape of her breasts and left her self-conscious.
Abbey soon became sick, collapsing at work and on patrol and even having to be hospitalized.
She was placed on light duties and referred to a cardiologist, neurologist and rheumatologist in turn, but none of them could say what was wrong with her.
The idea that her symptoms could be linked to her implants was dismissed.
'I had doctors roll their eyes at me when I mentioned BII,' Abbey told DailyMail.com. As her symptoms got worse, her friend who is a nurse recommended she join the Facebook group.
'I scrolled for hours and just read women's posts about the same thing. Honestly, that page quite literally saved my life, and changed my life, because I don't know if I would ever have made the decision to explant had I not had that community.'
Abbey had her implants removed in 2023 and claims that her symptoms disappeared almost immediately.
'I remember coming out of surgery and it was like I could see again,' she said, 'the rashes went away, I had no more joint pain, I could work out again.
'I have not passed out or had a single episode like that since they were removed.'
'I would get sick every couple of months and be sick for six to eight weeks at a time,' McDougal told People magazine at the time. 'It just never went away.'
Holly's surgeon photographed her breast implants after they were removed to ensure they had a record of the make and serial number
The disbelieving attitude of health care professionals is a common theme among the women who spoke to DailyMail.com.
'Women tell me they go to their doctors and say I don't know what's wrong with me,' says Diana Zuckerman PhD, founder of the National Center for Health Research, 'and doctors say, well you're getting older, you're 30.
'Or they say 'you've got children, you're not getting enough sleep'.
'It's a combination of women not being listened to and doctors not knowing what to do, especially plastic surgeons being defensive and not helpful.'
Breast implants are a billion-dollar industry, bringing in an estimated $1.54 billion in revenue in 2021 alone, according to The Aesthetic Society.
'There's enormous money and pressure against doing better research,' says Zuckerman, 'there is so much money on the other side of this issue.'
Now, as more independent tests are done, the results are rather different, she says. And the picture they paint is increasingly damning.
One 2020 study, published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery by plastic surgeon Dr Lu-Jean Fang of 750 women with BII, found removing the implants caused a statistical improvement in every one of their symptoms.
Fang said the results showed the condition is real and that women's symptoms are very likely caused by their implants.
'This is real,' agrees Zuckerman, 'and it can be very serious, but we still don't know how often it happens.
Influencer Malin Nunez had her breast implants removed after developing what she believed to be BII in 2019 - she shared a before and after picture on her Instagram at the time
Model Sarah Harris from New Zealand had her breast implants removed after developing a series of debilitating symptoms. She had the surgery in 2022 and felt immediately better.
The Food and Drug Administration now lists the condition as a potential side effect of breast implants – a major step forward, according to BII believers.
'Symptoms such as fatigue, memory loss, rash, 'brain fog,' and joint pain may be associated with breast implants,' states the FDA's official website.
And around five years ago, the FDA required doctors provide patients with a checklist of potential complications, although Zuckerman says this doesn't always happen and might be counteracted by the surgeons assuring their clients they are still safe.
'As is true with all informed consent forms, patients often don't read them carefully and what they remember is what the doctor told them,' he says.
Holly and Abbey claim that they were never explicitly warned about the risks by their doctors.
'Maybe it was in the terms and conditions small print, but they never told me,' insists Holly, who says she'd been assured that her silicone implants were 'lifetime devices' that would leave her feeling healthy and looking the same.
'They told me [the implants] would last 25 years, that they'd make me feel normal,' she says.
In 2022 – 12 years after the operation – and with her condition finally confirmed by a plastic surgeon, 57-year-old Holly joined the soaring number of American women having silicone implants removed from their bodies.
Today, Holly is almost back to full health.
'With the implants I had 30 symptoms,' Holly tells the Mail through her tears. 'Afterwards, I could breathe again. I could finally take a deep breath.'
