Fw: Press Conference on Breast Implants in Washington yesterday

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----- Original Message ----- From: Zuckerman

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Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 6:27 AM

Subject: Press Conference on Breast Implants in Washington yesterday

As some of you know, the National Organization of Women held a press conference on breast implants on Monday. I was pleased to be one of the speakers, and made poster size photos of implant problems for the event. My goal was to emphasize that the FDA's decision to review only two years of safety data for silicone implants is not sufficient.

A summary of my remarks are below.

Sincerely,

Zuckerman

National Center for Policy Research (CPR) for Women & Familieswww.center4policy.org

Statement at the National Press Club

July 21, 2003

Zuckerman, Ph.D.

President, National Center for Policy Research for Women & Families

Our center is a think tank, and we provide research-based information about health issues for free. We have an online hotline, and we get emails every day from women with health questions. Almost every day we receive a letter about breast implants, often from young women who were very happy with their implants for the first year or two or even five or ten or fifteen, and then started to have problems. Unfortunately, they sometimes have no insurance and can't afford to take care of the problems that arise.

Here are some photos of common problems.

Capsular Contracture -- the breasts in this photo don't look terrible, but they are very hard and painful. Sometimes the breasts are as hard as a rock. once said she was embarrassed to hug anyone, because her breasts were so hard it would be noticeable whenever she hugged anyone. This photo is provided by the FDA on their website and this 29-year old woman had implants for 7 years and her breasts became very hard and painful -- one is pointing off in a different direction.

Here she is 2 years later -- 1 year after her implants were removed. Even though her breasts look very unattractive, she preferred this to the pain she had suffered.

Here is a more gruesome photo -- this is called extrusion. The implant is coming out of the breast. When you hear about complications, the dry statistics, it doesn't have the same impact as this photo. This woman had a mastectomy after breast cancer and was told she would be good as new with a new breast. This is what happened instead.

This black and white photo by Anne Stansell shows another woman whose silicone implants were removed. It looks like she had a mastectomy, but it was caused by leaking silicone, not by cancer. When silicone gel implants leak, the silicone oil can get into healthy breast tissue. In order to remove the silicone, the surgeon sometimes has to remove the healthy breast tissue. The result is like a mastectomy.

In closing, I just want to say that these women were happy at first. They recommended implants to their friends. And then, when they had problems, some had no resources to solve them. Some didn’t have money to have their implants removed, or to have a Board certified plastic surgeon try to improve their appearance after the implants were removed.

This is the story of breast implants. New implants are designed, and women are happy at first. But over time, they are less satisfied with their appearance, and eventually they may be in terrible pain, or have leaking implants and need to have their implants removed. Since insurance rarely covers removal, they can’t always afford the $10,000 or $20,000 or more it can cost to remove leaking silicone gel implants.

FDA has allowed silicone gel implants on the market in clinical trials since 1992. There should be 11 years of data by now. Why is FDA only requiring 2 years of data? Implants rarely break during the first 2 years. We need to know if implants are safe after 7 or 10 or 15 years.