Breast implant removal rates surge amid health concerns

CHARLOTTE — Stacie Jowers calls nursing her calling, but in 2012, she suddenly went from caring for patients, to becoming one.

“I could not walk 10 feet without being out of breath,” Jowers told Channel 9’s Erika Jackson. “I could not take a shower without being out of breath.”

Jowers says the symptoms started about a year after she got breast implants. She says she also developed blurry vision, brain fog and memory issues.

“I would keep a food journal, and it didn’t make sense to anything that I did or ate. Nothing made sense,” she said.

Doctors diagnosed her with Chiari malformation — a condition where brain tissue extends into the spinal canal. After surgery for that condition, she says she also developed new issues, like seizures.

Jowers also lives with a condition known as POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. It triggers symptoms, like an increased heart rate when standing up after lying down.

She says she attributed all of her health issues to her diagnoses, until she heard of breast implant illness, or BII.

“And I was like, this makes so much sense,” she said. “Why did no one ever say anything to me?”

Cleveland Clinic describes BII as a collection of symptoms that may be related to breast implants, such as fatigue, joint pain and brain fog. The exact cause isn’t known, and doctors diagnose it by ruling out other conditions. Treatment involves removing the implants.

Dr. Garrett Harper with Graper Harper Cosmetic Surgery says the majority of his patients who want implants removed do so for health reasons.

“It’s important that patients get all the information that they can and really are figuring out what’s the reason behind them wanting to remove their implants, and if it makes sense for them, awesome,” Harper said.

Research by plastic surgeons with the Aesthetic Society found an 11% increase in the number of breast augmentation surgeries between 2019 and 2023. The number of breast plant removal surgeries jumped 40% during that time period.

Harper says reaching a BII diagnosis is difficult because there’s no way to test for the condition. It’s based on a patient self-reporting symptoms, but he says patients with saline implants, like Jowers, are more likely to have side effects.

Harper believes some patients may simply feel better psychologically by getting their implant removed to rule out BII.

“The breast implant illness concept isn’t really a recognized diagnosis,” he said. “It’s what gets tagged onto somebody who has a constellation of symptoms, you know, a bunch of different things going on,” he said.

Fourteen years after getting breast implants, Jowers is scheduled for explant surgery this week.

“I am looking forward to having these things removed, and I am hopeful that I will be symptom-free,” she said.

She’s still not sure if her symptoms are related to her breast implants but would rather be safe than sorry.

“I’m very optimistic of the symptoms going away and just being healthy again, whether it eliminates all of the symptoms, some of the symptoms, regardless,” Jowers said.

While the breast implant removal may not eliminate all of her symptoms, Jowers says it’s a chance she’s willing to take.

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