Fw: Telling it like it is: another opinion article by a woman with implants

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

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Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:56 PM

Subject: Telling it like it is: another opinion article by a woman with implants

Here is another great oped by one of the women with implants. It's in the Hartford Courant, We have been helping get these published, so let us know if you'd like to try too! This is a great way to educate people about the risks of implants. Thank you Pam!

Best wishes,

Zuckerman, Ph.D.PresidentNational Center for Policy Research (CPR) for Women & Familieswww.center4policy.org

http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-implants1211.artdec11,1,5704146.story

Women Need Facts To Decide On Breast Implants

Pamela Noonan-SaraceniDecember 11 2003As a woman who has survived breast cancer, I am angry at the hypocritical suggestion that women have the "right to choose" breast implants. That claim was developed by a public relations spin machine, not by a woman with implants. The women who are considering implants can't make a good choice if we don't have the facts.I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy in 1978. I was just 25 years old.I waited five years before I decided to have reconstructive surgery. I played tennis, jogged and taught aerobics, and had grown tired of the inconvenience of the prosthesis shifting and falling out of my bra when I perspired.I thought that I had done my homework on breast implants prior to surgery. However, I was never advised of any health risks associated with the silicone gel breast implants. In fact, I was told that they would "last a lifetime" and that "complications were rare."Within three months of the reconstruction surgery, I was back on the operating table. My body had formed a scar capsule around the implant, and the implant had shifted up under my collarbone. Searing pain was causing my shoulder to become immobile.That surgery seemed to help, but symptoms of physical illness began slowly after that. At first I attributed the fatigue, aches and pains to just getting older. (I was only 36 years old!) This was the summer of 1990 - six years after getting implants.In July 1992, I had what I thought was a severe case of the flu, and six weeks later I was still so fatigued that my life was being drastically affected. I continue to live with gastro-intestinal problems, sleep disorders, night sweats, chronic fatigue and joint pain.I have gone to various doctors and specialists and have been given numerous diagnoses. "Atypical connective tissue disease" is the No. 1 diagnosis. What does that mean? It means I have symptoms typical of autoimmune diseases, but I don't have exactly the right pattern of symptoms to fit any specific known disease.Before I had the implant removed in June of 1994 (10 years after the initial reconstruction), I was again wearing a partial prosthesis, but over the implant. The scar tissue had again become a problem, and I was misshapen and lopsided. The surgery to remove my implants was my fifth breast surgery. At the time, I thought I was the only one with such problems, but now I know that almost half the breast cancer patients with implants will need at least one additional surgery because of serious problems that occur within three years.So far, my out-of-pocket medical expenses total close to $40,000. My husband and I are self-insured. The insurance policy that we took out in 1990 carried an exclusion clause, so I was not covered for any illness or disability related to the reconstructive surgery. It's as if the insurance companies understand that there are health risks associated with breast implants and they are not willing to bear the financial costs. It now seems that I made a bad choice when I decided to get implants. But how could I have avoided it? I made that choice only after consulting health professionals. How was I to know that implants were not as safe as the doctors said they were? Who else was I supposed to trust if not the very people trained to look after my well-being? There is no miracle cure for me. Fortunately, I have found ways to cope with my health limitations and can share a productive life with my family. I have adapted to deal with the lifelong health impact that the breast implants have left on my body. I hope that by sharing my story, I can spare other women from experiencing what I went through. How often do these kinds of problems happen? The facts about safety are missing. The Food and Drug Administration has not required the kinds of studies that can answer those questions, but they could, and should. They have the power to continue to restrict the sale of all silicone gel breast implants, until at least one company provides conclusive and long-term data proving their safety. It's time that the FDA remembered its role as a watchdog, made sure those studies were completed and got those missing facts to the women who need them.Pamela Noonan-Saraceni lives in New Fairfield.