Many women think that cosmetic breast implants will change their lives, and often they do – sometimes in unexpected ways. Beth McMurray knows that all too well. The 59-year-old psychotherapist from Birmingham, Ala., ended her love affair with her movie-star breasts after she suffered bouts of breast tenderness, an infection, fluid drainings and, finally, a deflated implant that shrunk her breast size from a C-cup to its original A. “I have a lot of discomfort. I can’t raise my arm, it’s difficult to sleep, and I wake up in pain,” McMurray says. Her post-surgery problems began a decade after she underwent cosmetic breast augmentation. “Now, I wish I’d never done it.”
Monitor breasts. Report any changes to your breast surgeon or primary-care physician.Do monthly breast self-exams and get yearly physician-administered breast exams.Continue routine mammography screening. Women with both saline and silicone implants should get an extra, third view in addition to the usual vertical and horizontal views, Downey says. But don’t worry unnecessarily, she adds. Implants haven’t been found to cause, or delay the detection of, breast cancer in women. Get MRIs. Women with silicone gel-filled implants also should get magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) three years after surgery and every two years thereafter to keep an eye on possible ruptures and to detect breast cancer.
