An estimated 200,000 women in the Netherlands between the ages of 20 and 70 have breast implants. About a quarter of these women received their implants as part of breast reconstruction after a mastectomy due to breast cancer or a hereditary risk of developing this condition.
Some women with silicone breast implants report a range of physical and psychological symptoms long after the placement of the implants. These symptoms include fatigue, muscle and joint pain, memory issues, headaches, hair loss, sleep disturbances, and depression. While these symptoms are commonly found in the general population, they are known as as “Breast Implant Illness” when occurring in women with implants. No clear medical explanation exists for these health complaints to date.
The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, investigated whether these symptoms occur more often in breast cancer survivors with silicone breast implants. The researchers selected over 10,000 women from the Netherlands Cancer Registry who had been treated for breast cancer between 2000 and 2015 at one of six participating hospitals. The cohort included women who had undergone breast-conserving surgery, mastectomy without reconstruction, mastectomy with autologous reconstruction (using body tissue), or mastectomy with reconstruction using a silicone breast implant.