Re: Fw: Another study links suicides and breast implants ...

[Guest guest]

Okay,

I checked the internet for a contact address for this Dr. Sarwer at the Univ of Penn School of Medicine. I plan on telling him how suicidal I was from my implant ILLNESS, not because I was some mental psycho. I have always been mentally healthy, but implants affected my outlook on life in a terrible way while I was at my sickest. Please join me if you feel as strongly as I do about making clear to these medical people that they are missing the boat when they think they need to do a pre-breast augmentation mental health survey to lower the number of suicides from breast implants. Do it soon! They are having the conference today and tomorrow!

Try these addresses, and put to the attention of Dr. Sarwer:

weight@...

joanna@...

Here's my message:

Dear Dr. Sarwer:

I wanted to share some personal information with you on my experience with breast implants. I am writing in response to a recent study in which you quoted that "the findings highlight the need for plastic surgeons to assess their patients' mental health status before performing breast enlargement surgery." I especially want to communicate with you, knowing you are going to be a speaker at the 22nd Annual American Medical Association's Science Reporters Conference on this very subjecty. I urge you to study the women themselves.

I have been a support group leader for women harmed by breast implants, and have known women who committed suicide, and feel that the conclusions drawn by you and so many others are erroneous. I myself was suicidal after becoming ill from breast implants. Of course, I cannot speak for those that have died, and I may not know the real reasons the women have killed themselves, but I can tell you that many, many, many of the ill women I have spoken to or communicated with in my support group have thought of suicide at one time or another. I think that, in fact, most women don't carry out the actual act of killing, and so the numbers of suicidal women are way higher than these studies show. I speak from personal experience, as I was often suicidal, or had thoughts of wanting to die during my illness. Since I no longer feel that way, I take exception to the idea that I am psychopathic to begin with. That is simply not the case. I am a normal, average, and successful woman. The plain and simple truth is that the illness we suffer from, when our immune systems are destroyed and we cannot even function, are what cause us to have suicidal thoughts. We no longer feel the desire to struggle through each day. We no longer have motivation to live. We feel no hope or way out. We want our suffering to end. We don't see an end in sight, when doctors keep telling us that our illness is in our heads when we know darn well that there is something wrong but no one can tell us what or why or how to get better. I have had discussions with other women that confirms this tendency to suicidal thought, and I am astounded at how many have said they wanted to commit suicide because of their illness, but have not done so because of husbands, children or parents, or their faith in God. This idea that we are initially mentally ill and then correlating that with increased suicides is just plain wrong! It is the illness that makes us want to die, not a mental weakness that was already in place. How can we get that idea across? How can we make others understand just how devastating this illness is to us when most of the other tests come out normal? How can this suicidal tendency from breast implant ILLNESS be quantified? This is one piece of the puzzle that needs answering, so professionals can understand just how devastating breast implants are for those that become ill, because all we ever hear is how much of a confidence builder breast implants are--and THAT IS TRUE UNTIL WE GET SICK. I had much more confidence in myself after I got breast implants. I was happier than I had ever been in my life. I was not a psychopath! But my illness at its worst took away my desire to live, and I felt like a social paraiah. I remember those dark days well, though I would rather forget.

Thankfully, I am doing so well today that I am almost back to normal. I do have Hashimoto's, thanks to implants. I will have to take thyroid meds for the rest of my life, and go back regularly for blood work to tweek my dosages. It isn't fun. But I think I walked away from my breast implant nightmare a lucky lady, relatively speaking. It was only by the grace of God that I didn't commit suicide and become one of those numbers. I urge you to look at this in a different light, and I pray that you will see the truth behind these suicide numbers and help educate the medical field that breast implants themselves are the cause of the illnesses and resulting suicides, not a mental deficiency. Sincerely,

Patty Faussett, Founder of Saline Support breast implant support group on

----- Original Message -----

From: *~Patty~*

Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 12:12 PM

Subject: Fw: Another study links suicides and breast implants ...

God help us to make clear to these people that these suicides are not entirely from a failure to do a proper mental assessment! It is from their failing to recognize the illnesses that develop and then leaving us to languish when they say it is all in our heads! I mean HELP US LORD!!!!!!

----- Original Message ----- From: ilena rose

ilena@...

Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 9:12 AM

Subject: Another study links suicides and breast implants ...

From: ilena@... (Ilena)

Newsgroups: alt.support.breast-implant

Subject: Another study links suicides and breast implants ...

Breast implants may be linked to suicides

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030910-064821-1471r.htm

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- A new study indicates women who

undergo cosmetic breast implant surgery may have a threefold increase

in their risk of suicide.

Sarwer of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine said

the findings highlight the need for plastic surgeons to assess their

patients' mental health status before performing breast enlargement

surgery.

Sarwer will discuss the findings during the 22nd Annual American

Medical Association's Science Reporters Conference, to be held

Thursday and Friday in Philadelphia. The study by a team of Finnish

and American researchers will be published in the October issue of the

journal ls of Plastic Surgery.

The researchers identified 2,166 women undergoing cosmetic breast

implant surgery in Finland from 1970 through 2000. They then compared

the causes of death for women with breast implants with women in the

general population.

They found women in the breast-implant group had a rate of suicide

three times higher than in the general population.

Sarwer said the study is the third in recent years to show an

increased suicide risk in women who undergo breast enlargement

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