I reached an important anniversary on November 29th.  Four years ago, I had my breast implants removed.    

I, like many women, had breast augmentation because I didn’t feel very feminine.  I felt boyish and awkward in my thin body.  Too tall, too thin, too lanky, UGH!  I could have gone on and on with everything I felt was wrong with how I looked.  In reality, all this was in my head.  My perception of myself was very misguided by air brushed photos and beautiful movie stars that looked nothing like what I saw when I looked in the mirror.  This is something that I became obsessed with changing.

 It has been a very long journey for me.  Back in 1996, I made the decicsion to have my breasts augmented.  Feeling thilled with my outcome and finally feeling like I had a better body image, no one could tell me what lay ahead for me.  

In 2001, I became completely disabled and it took another 3 years to find out that my implants were making me very ill.  Those three years really delayed my recovery as I found myself becoming more and more ill and suicidal.  On October 19, 2004, I attempted to take my own life.  Unfortunately, this is another date that I will never forget but I have been able to rise above all of this and have slowly been getting pieces of my life back again along with my health. 

My implants were removed on November 29, 2004.  I have made so much progress since then.  I’m still disabled but my health has been slowly improving.  I feel better now than I have in many, many years.

Like Krista mentioned in her post regarding her explant anniversary, I look at this as a lesson learned.  I no longer look at women with big fake breasts and think they look beautiful.  The entire experience has changed the way I look at myself.  Surprisingly so!  Fake breasts are just not very attractive to me at all. 

 This experience has had other positive effects as well.  I no longer abuse my body with the wrong foods.  Healthy food and exercise are all part of my life now.  Sure I still have some body issues.  The only difference now is that I look to exercise in trying to improve my look.  This is something that I wish I would have thought about years ago. 

I’m angry that so many have lied to me about the safety of breast implants so I use my experience and research to educate other women.  Women should have all the facts prior to having something like this done.  In my opinion, there is nothing safe about breast implants.  You are inserting a foreign object in your body that has many chemicals in it.  Chemicals that cause cancer and autoimmune related diseases.  There is so much that can go wrong with this type of surgery. 

For all the ladies out there thinking of having this done, please do your research.  Thoroughly do your research and make sure you read the chemical list.  Seeing that alone 12 years ago would have made me realize that these are not safe to put into the body.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that only silicone gel implants contain these chemicals.  The outer shell of a saline implant is silicone so you are being exposed to these chemicals with all implants.

This indeed was a hard lesson learned!

beth