Loving Reply to 18 year old Australian women wants implants

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 00:07:55 -0700

Dear N.

I am writing to you from New Zealand not so far away!! I love Australia and have been there quite a number of times.

On some of my visits I have seen and spoken with women suffering health problems as a result of breast implants.

I know you only want to hear the good stories, but truly, you must not hide your head in the sand, because the good stories are few and far between.

At the moment, you are young and I am sure beautiful and to you, having larger breasts is probably top priority, so it's hard to explain she really awful things that could happen to you because of breast implants.

I too am 5' 4" when I was your age, I had quite large breasts and thought I was pretty cool as as I stuck my chest out and had the guys whistling!!!! Then I got married and had 3 lovely babies in quick succession. My breasts were not quite so good after that, and I felt self conscious.

Instead of telling me I was still lovely and looked quite OK, my (then) husband wore down my self esteem, and finally talked me into having breast implants.

N. that was the very worst decision I have ever made in my whole life!! it was a very painful operation, but I endured that. At first I even thought I looked good, but then the problems set in. Neck aches, shoulder aches, lack of sensitivity with my breasts, and hardening of the breasts until they resembled golf balls.

Oh how I wished I had kept my own beautiful healthy body intact and never got caught up in this nightmare.

I consulted doctors, but none had any knowledge of breast implants, and plastic surgeons frightened me to death by telling me if I had my implants removed I would be left with flat pikelets!!! Can you imagine how I felt.

Well 23 years of suffering went by. I was scared to play sport, scared to hug my family, scared to wear low cut dresses because you could see the outline of where my real breasts finished and the artificial ones started. I felt like a fraud. I hated myself and my breasts.

Eventually my husband and I parted and I re married. I had to confess to my new husband that I had silicone boobs, it was so embarrasing! Then I decided to have another baby. She was gorgeous, but I was too scared to breastfeed her, and it's just as well I did not, because they now have some evidence that silicone gets into breast milk, and don't be fooled, even saline implants are incased in silicone bags.

So my daughter did not have the benefit of breast milk, I felt guilty about that too, and still do.

By this time my implants were as hard as rocks, and were distorted in shape and so painful. I could not lie on my stomach or on my side properly. My love life ws ruined because I could not bear to be touched.

Finally, I got very brave and made the decision to have them removed. by this time I was prepared to have no breasts at all. I just wanted to get rid of the dreadful things.

When I came round after the operation, I was encased in sticking plaster and felt very sore, but I also felt uplifted, and reborn. I had finally got my body back!!!!

After about 3 months, my breasts settled down and I was amazed to find I still had two quite respectable breasts. The poor things, they have been through a lot, and I feel so sorry for them! How we had suffered.

I lost quite a lot of breast tissue, and one is smaller than the other, and I still get awful pulling feelings inside which I assume is scar tissue, but at least they are real. They feel warm to the touch. they are sensitive again they are real, not cold hard lumps.

I have learnt a lot from that experience, and along the way, I have met some sick, sick women. I too have health problems from having silicone in my body which cannot be expelled.

So N., learn from your Mum's experience which was not so good. Just love yourself as you are. Remember you are a TOTAL WOMAN, not just a pair of breasts. Any guy who judges you by this alone is not worth knowing.

We women don't go round judging guys by the size of their testicles- we like to know they have a brain in their head as well, don't you agree!!!

Please, please, don't make the same mistake I and thousands of other women have made.

Steer clear of implants and keep your health, and don't believe any doctors who tell you implants are safe.

Kindest wishes

T.

Co-ordinator

WIINNZ (Womens Implant Information Network New Zealand)

Dear N. saw your post, and am forwarding your sweet message to our silicone/saline implant support group. What a huge decision for you to be making. All the best, Ilena.

I live in Perth, Austrlia and I am only 18 years old (almost 19) I am 5"4 and I have been contemplating BA for about 12 months now. My mother had it done about 5 years ago and her's look great, but they are much larger than what she thought they would be. I take after my mum and am definately not a big girl ya know what I mean. My Mum's surgury went ok but she had a bit of trouble about 2 week's later when the scar tissue gave way and basically blew up and she had to go back and get some more stitches. She say's that it was more painful than giving birth to me. I really want to get it done but I think that I am a bit scarred. I think I just think I need someone to tell me their good stories. My mum has no problem with me doing it because she know's how I feel and I think it will give my more confidence in myself. I hope someone can help me!!!! I would love to hear from you because I wont talk to anyone else about it, beside my boyfriend and my mother, cose I dont want anyone else to know, I want everyone to think that my time just came atlast and I just finally grew.

Thanks heaps