What Price Beauty?

There have been various controversies associated with breast implants, but women, vain creatures that we are, continue to seek those 'improvements' over their natural endowments. In Brazil, it has become a garden-variety gift to teen-age coming-of-age girls, to pay for their breast enlargement.

There have been notorious instances in the news where the silicone implants have become infected, where the liquid in implants have seeped out, and where implants have become painful and lumpy. Expectations are high when they're put in place, not so great when they must be removed due to health outcomes.

Aside from which, no one really knows in fact what the long-range use of breast implants will represent for the wearer.

For some people the very idea of having foreign objects installed in their chest wall is repugnant. For others, women yearning for full-chested frontal abundance the investment in surgery and funding it in anticipation that their fleshy real estate will present the image they crave, is well worth the effort.

Despite the bad press that surfaces on occasion about problems arising out of inferior materials used by some unscrupulous breast implant manufacturers and the trials and tribulations foisted upon the unwary by unforeseen complications, women are still flocking to the cosmetic surgery that breast implants represent.

Breast augmentation in the U.S. alone has increased by 800% in the last two decades.

And now surfaces research findings that women with breast implants may be at higher risk for cancer, and for death caused by cancer. The findings of epidemiologist Dr. Dean Fergusson, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, one of the contributors of the study being quoted, combines results from a dozen studies undertaken in North America and northern Europe.

Leading to the conclusion that women with implants came out with a 26% increased risk of being diagnosed at a later stage, resulting in a 38% greater risk of death. Implants interfere with the detection of early-stage breast cancer, obscuring some tissues sighted on mammograms; roughly one third of the breast is not adequately screened, sometimes leading to false negatives.

"I think there should b e increased screening for women with augmentation. They and their doctors should be aware of this", cautioned Dr. Fergusson. "The take-home message is not to have breast implants removed. It's to raise concerns and investigate the issue further. Women who are considering should have their information and discuss it with their doctor."

And this is what they should think about and discuss:

• Chances of surviving breast cancer for women with breast implants (based on 2012 study of 400 women in Ontario and Quebec): 98% at one year; 86.5% at five years; 77.2% at ten years.
• Chances of surviving breast cancer for women without implants (based on 2012 study of 434 women in Ontario and Quebec): 99.1% after one year; 90.7% after 5 years; 83.5% after 10 years.
• Chances a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime: one in eight.