After a little persuasion from my husband and a few close family members, I finally decided to join Facebook last week.  Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

What I didn’t realize about Facebook before I signed up, was that it is much more then just putting up a profile, uploading pictures and getting back in touch with old friends.  Facebook includes hundreds if not thousands of “applications” that you actually “add” to your page. The applications are anything from adding “the quote of the day” to your page, to adding little “stickers,” various quizzes that you can take to test your knowledge on different subjects, to sending and receiving various “gifts” to and from your friends. The “gifts” include anything from flowers, to little hatching eggs, to drinks, to “karma.”

As I was learning the ins and outs of Facebook over the last two weeks, I was browsing the pages of my friends, and to my surprise and shock, one of my friends had received various “boobies” from her friends. I learned quickly that people are sending each other photos of different breasts and adding the photos straight to their page.  After my shock wore off a bit, I decided to take a closer look at this facebook “application.” In order to do this, I had to add the application to my page. So, I pressed the button to add the application, did my research, and quickly deleted the application before anyone noticed that I added it.  What I found through my five minutes of  research was that there were about 45 different types of “boobies” that you could send and receive. A few of the boobies included the following:

Motivational Boobies

Fake Boobies (though ALL of the boobies were fake, so I really didn’t get that one.)

Sporty Boobies

Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I found this particular application extremely annoying, to say the least. Who, but an immature teenager would think receiving and sending photos of fake breasts is interesting, cool, or “okay” for that matter? Aren’t we inundated with fake breasts ENOUGH? What is this teaching the millions of teenagers that are part of Facebook, that women’s bodies and breasts are just objects? Come on Facebook, you can do better.

It seems as though some of these Doctors are willing to come up with anything in order to insert silicone in our bodies.   Of course we all know about silicone gel breast implants but (no pun intended) there are people having their butt’s enlarged and men having their abs looking like a washboard with implants as well but when I read this article, I thought what else??? 

Come on, a scalp lift that entails inserting some sort of silicone implant into the top of the head to appear taller?  This is really crazy not to mention very dangerous.  This world is so obsessed with everything relating to our looks including our height. 

I can’t help but wonder how long before his hair stops growing in that spot and he starts to develop brain fog or worse yet, autoimmune disorders, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue and the list goes on. 

Now is this really worth all the risks just to be a few inches taller?  I wonder if he was warned of all the dangers in doing this procedure?  I doubt not as the article quotes Dr Luis de la Cruz as saying “It is a relatively simple procedure that can have a wonderfully positive effect on the patient’s life”.  I know that my breast augmentation sure didn’t have a ‘wonderfully postitive effect on my life’. 

The New York Times recently came out with a Plastic Surgeon Q&A.  (I have noticed that the New York Times in general seems to think breast implants are a safe choice.) 

The average person would have been snowed by the Q&A, particularly when Dr. Zenn said that “saline and silicone breast implants are equally safe”, and that they only need to be replaced 35% of the time.  What???  Even breast implant manufacturers admit that breast implants need to be replaced every 10 years or so (apparently the good doc’s throwing away the package insert without reading it). 

Removed silicone breast implant.  (Photo by Lisa Bennett)

And as for saline and silicone breast implants being “equally safe”….I would totally agree.  AVOID like the plague.

 New York Times, just because a doctor says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. You should know better.

~Kacey

Last night while catching up with one of my favorite late night shows, Chelsea Lately, I was reminded of yet another reason why I love comedian Chelsea Handler.  She’s not afraid to say what’s on her mind, even if it contradicts popular opinion (exhibit A, when Jenny McCarthy came on her show to talk about the Autism/vaccine connection).

June 12th’s episode was no exception, when the round table discussion decided to take on the concept of breast implants. 

Sarah Larson (George Clooney’s now ex-girlfriend)  apparently got breast implants right before they broke up and it turns out that George didn’t like that.  Reportedly George Clooney told Sarah not to get breast implants and she got them anyway.  And now the only woman that seemed to really captivate Mr. Clooney has been cast off of George island.

 ”You know you’re the man when you beak up with your girlfriend for getting a boob job,” said comedian Owen Benjamin at the Chelsea Lately round table.

I’m not quite sure how to take this comment, but Chelsea’s really got my attention:

“I’m pretty excited.  I like hearing that guys don’t like fake boobs because I think people should stop getting fake boobs and I think girls should stop getting plastic surgery.” ~Chelsea Handler

THANK YOU, CHELSEA, for taking a chance and saying something positive!  I’m with you, let’s help girls turn their focus away from plastic surgery.  Perhaps she has heard that breast implants are not a healthy option?

~Kacey

I think that today’s society, men, women, and the pressure to be perfect has the largest effect on women who choose to get breast implants. I am 23 years old, 5′7, 140 pounds and a B cup. Well, barely a B, but I am still a B. I am desperate to have my breasts done. I cry about it and obsess over it. I could care less whether or not it is safe, I am willing to take the risk and for what? For what other people think of me. I know it is ridiculous, I have a boyfriend who thinks I’m crazy, but I can’t help but think whenever a girl walks by with a large C cup and a small waist that he would much rather be with her at night then with me. I’m miserable. It does not stop at my breasts, it is my entire body. I am constantly picking myself apart, and some days I’m too depressed to get off the couch and get dressed. If it weren’t for that fact that I had to go to work, I wouldn’t get up at all sometimes.

Now, I know what this is from. I had an eating disorder, I was bulimic and anorexic in high school, in fact it started in 8th grade and I like to believe that I am over it, but I’m not. Recently I was complaining about my body when my boyfriend looked at me and made a comment very unlike him to make; He said “you know that is very unattractive, no self confidence”. Now, I know that men like self confidence, but honestly I did not even think he was listening half the time when I would rant and rave about my body. He then said “I think you’re sexy and there is nothing wrong with you”. However, from the years of looking at the unrealistic women in the magazines and internal dialog I’ve created with myself, I cannot believe him. I think that he is saying these things just to shut me up.

I’m writing all of this because I know that so many young women are affected by these things. I was very sexually promiscuous when I was younger for nothing more than the feeling that I was “good enough” whatever that is and I have done many horrible things to my mind, body, and soul all in the pursuit of being “pretty enough” or “sexy enough”.

The media, women, men, and what goes on within yourself all contribute to why women are willing to put their lives on the line for the “perfect” body. I’ve now begun to keep these thoughts and feelings inside as I do not want to turn my boyfriend off any more than I believe I already do and returning to destructive habits of throwing up certain foods that I think I do not need to eat. Common sense wise, I know that I am not fat, but for some reason when I look in the mirror or hear myself think that is all I tell myself. I pick myself apart constantly and part of my wanting breast augmentation is because (even though I know it is not true) I think maybe, just maybe, I will feel better about myself and these constant thoughts of inadequacy and imperfection will go away.

We recently received the above comment to one of our posts here at Beauty and The Breast, and I thought it was important to highlight this comment because these comments are ones that we hear far too often from young women.

First, I wanted to say to this young woman that I think most all women can relate to what you are saying. I do feel like you left this comment for us because you are trying to reach out, understand yourself better and just try to see if there are other’s that can relate to you. I will be the first to tell you that—–yes, we can ALL relate.

I also want to say that I was in your shoes not that many years ago. I had low self-esteem, I never felt pretty enough, sexy enough, desired enough, smart enough, etc. I decided to go through with getting breast implants when I was 25 years old. I thought they would be the answer to all of my problems, all of my self-esteem issues, and that all would be right in the world if I had them. The truth was that breast implants did not change any of that for me. I was still the exact say girl I always was; only now I was constantly trying to cover myself up because it was very obvious that I had implants. Every time I’d put on a bathing suit everyone would stare at me because my breasts looked like two awkward grapefruits stuck to my chest. I never wore low-cut clothing because; again I was embarrassed that everyone knew I had fake breasts. I have many many friends and family members who have breast implants, and they are the exact same way…constantly trying to “keep them under wraps.”

What you also need to remember is that for a lot of women breast implants make them look heavier and their waists shorter. That is one thing that I don’t think a lot of women think about before getting their implants, and then they are disappointed at the way their bodies look with implants. I know many women who have decided just a few weeks or a few months after getting implants that they are not all they are cracked up to be and opt to have them taken out. Mostly because they are awkward and fake-looking, make them look heavier and just don’t look right on their bodies.

Before going under the knife to get breast implants, or any cosmetic surgery for that matter I think women need to stop and ask themselves “why am I doing this?” Is it because you think by doing it all of your problems are going to be solved, or your life is going to better, or your self-esteem will be higher? Because breast implants won’t solve ANY of those things. One important lesson I have learned over the past couple of years is that self-esteem and beauty starts from the inside, it isn’t something that you can buy from a plastic surgeon, or by getting plastic bags inserted into your chest. Far too women think implants will solve their problem….in reality…they won’t.
Now, don’t get me wrong I know we are inundated with “perfect” looking women in magazines, on TV, in the movies…it’s everywhere. And, I know that this is something that is never going to change. Us “real” women are always going to have to compete with these “perfect” women (who by the way aren’t all that perfect, everyone has flaws,) but if we can somehow find our own inner beauty and see & accept our own unique beauty…it is only then that we will be truly beautiful. Self-confidence is what is beautiful, not a manufactured body part.

Melissa, I hope you will be able to find peace and acceptance within yourself, and be able to love yourself as you were created. It sounds like you have a very loving boyfriend, who thinks you are very sexy…what else matters? And, you sound like you have a wonderful body that a lot of women would love to have. I hope you will stop comparing yourself to other girls. You are only setting yourself up for failure when you don’t feel you are as pretty or as perfect as the girls in the magazines. It sounds like your issues are very deep-seated, which scares me and I hope you will take our advice and see a counselor. Getting breast implants is not the answer to your problems, your problem is stemming from what is in your head…you already know that. You need to work on loving and accepting yourself, the day you will be able to do that is the day you will see that you don’t need breast implants to be beautiful.

You are right when you say “so many young women are being affected by these things.” Your comment made it sound like they were a disease…which in my mind THEY ARE! I hope you will not be one of the young women affected by them, because trust me…they aren’t worth it. I wish my whole heart and soul that I could turn back the clock to 5 years ago and never get them. For me, would you consider never letting them affect your life like they have mine?
Sincerely, Krista

I have been reading on many of the wrestling sites over the past few days that according to the latest issue of Power Slam magazine, former WWE Diva, Trish Stratus has removed her breast implants. If this is true, then Trish would be following the lead of other former WWE women like Chyna, Debra “Madusa” Miceli, Kimberly Page and Nidia Guenard, who have also had their implants removed.

These reports have not been confirmed yet, and there is not reports on WHY Trish had her implants removed (if the reports are true,) but I’m sure we will find out one way or the other when recent pictures of Trish start surfacing.

What I found most interesting about this news, was that there were a lot of reports, such as this one that many fans were SURPRISED that Trish had implants in the first place! Wow guys, if you think a woman naturally has breasts that large, perky and high on her chest then you are really as naive as women getting implants hope you are! It always surprises me when a man thinks a women’s implanted breasts are natural. If you were one that one surprised that Trish had implants, I’d love to hear from you!

Maxi Mounds, a porn star from New York City, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records by having the largest breast implants in the world. Each of Maxi’s Breasts weighs 20 pounds, and are still growing!

But the procedure she used to get there has officially been banned by British authorities. Maxi explains that she had the old-style silicone imp­lants. But then came all the scare stories, so she had them replaced with overfilled saline. After a few years, her chest began to sag, so she had tubes put in her armpits so she could be topped up. In 2000, she had her implants ­removed and the pockets filled with polypropylene plastic string. This procedure, which has been banned, uses a solution that is injected into the breasts; it then irritates them, causing them to produce fluid and inflate the area further.

Maxi was quoted in this article as saying:

“It takes a very special type of person to be with someone who looks like me because of the reactions I get from people whenever I’m out in public. I’ve seen some pretty funny things happen. Men walking into things and getting slapped by their girlfriends because they were staring so hard.”

Well, Maxi the first thing I have to say is that men aren’t staring because they find your oversized, gigantic “breasts” attractive. They are staring because you look like a train wreck! It’s not a pretty sight, but you can’t help but stare! Second, why in the world would someone put their life and their health at risk for the sake of HUGE breasts? Not only is this “treatment” banned, but it is banned for a very good reason! Any time you are purposely implanting something into the body for the sole purpose of irritating a body part, you are asking for some serious trouble! It will not surprise me one bit to see this woman totally disabled in a few years due to the amount of fluid she is purposely causing her body to produce.

Who in their right mind would put testicular implants in a dog for looks? If it’s a show dog, perhaps…on second thought…it’s not even okay for a show dog. People should be able to get over the fact that the poor animal lost a part somehow and he should be treated like a whole dog…ball or no ball.

I’m having a hard enough time stomaching the new implant with address and health data in it. How sad would it be if a dog started experiencing side effects from toting around a testicular implant that the owner gave him because it made him “look normal”?

http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/05/articles/wacky-and-strange-but-true/niptuck-doggy-style/

~Kacey

When I made the decision to get breast implants, I thought it was a personal one. I thought it was a choice I could make on my own because I was the only person the surgery would affect. I could never have known that the decision I made at 19, would negatively impact the life of my mother, my father, and all of my siblings, friends, and future husband. Who would have thought???

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and it started me thinking about everything that my mom has done for me over the years. When I was a baby and couldn’t take care of myself, she was there. Slowly she taught me how to care for myself and others, and helped me to pursue my dreams. When it was time for college, I thought I had reached a new place in my relationship with my mother. The old times of her taking care of my physical needs had completely passed and I was to be independent from now on. The next time someone would need help physcially should have been my mother, when she’s around 80. Imagine my complete shock when just 2 years after leaving home, I was back and needing more physical help than I ever could have dreamed possible.

My mom was against the idea of my getting breast implants. She thought it was rediculous and completely out of character for me, but I was 19, and she knew I would make my own decision. After a few months of getting my implants, I started experiencing sharp pains in my arms that would come and go. I mentioned this to my mother, and she immediately thought the implants could be to blame. I remember getting angry that she would even consider it because I knew it couldn’t be possible. I had the procedure done by an excellent plastic surgeon and I was naive enough to think that nothing bad could happen because the FDA gave the saline breast implants their stamp of approval. 100% safe, at least in my mind anyway.

Slowly I began seeing things her way. Symptom after new symptom appeared. Doctor after doctor told us that implants were safe, and they would try their hand at a pill or something else they thought was sure to stop my joint pain. Nothing helped and I got to the point where my joints, bones, and muscles were on fire and I could barely get out of bed.

Thankfully, I graduated college, as it was a life-long dream of mine, and with a diploma, I knew I could die happy. And that’s just what I saw in my future…nothing….I didn’t think I’d make it long enough to have one. My mom stayed by my side the entire time, making sure I had bites of food small enough to try and chew, rubbing “old people” lotion all over my muscles and joints so I could get up and take a shower, and talking with me because that’s about all I was still capable of at the time. I wouldn’t leave the house for weeks because it hurt too badly to walk. Today I was thinking about the times when I did have a little energy to spare and I would ask to tag along when my mom needed to go grocery shopping. You wouldn’t think this is much, but it took me so long to walk a step or two, I know I slowed her down immensely. She never talked about what an inconvenience my bi-weekly or more doctors appointments were, or that she had 7 other children (all younger than myself) that needed her. What’s even more, she never made me feel bad about choosing to get the breast implants that she didn’t want for me, and that ended up almost killing me and making me such an extra burden on my family.  My mom wished someone would have told us of the dangers of breast implants, and so she encouraged me when I was given the opportunity to share my story through an MTV documentary.  She accompanied me on many flights to New York and took care of me so that I could share my story with the world.  Without her, I would not have been able to do any of this.

 After having my implants removed, I started feeling better immediately.  My joint and muscle pain lessened about 40% just with the explant surgery alone!  I started trying things that would get tiny remnants of silicone out of my body (the shell from the implants) and slowly got better.  I finally found a rheumatologist that was human, and she talked me through Rheumatoid Arthritis and found the right drugs to stop my joint damage (at the time I could not move one of my arms to my head, I could barely walk because of foot pain, etc.).  And now 4 years after having my implants removed and giving myself injections and chemo once a week, my RA is officially in remission.  This means that my blood tests are perfectly normal and that my body is not currently attacking itself and causing inflammation.  I was so excited to call my mom and tell her the good news a few weeks ago.  I tell her how much better I feel, but now she can see concrete proof that I’ll be okay.

 So you see, breast implants ended up affecting my life and the life of everyone that loved me, then and in the years to come.  I never thought I’d end up with Rheumatoid Arthritis, a disease that is always with you and can rear it’s ugly head at any time.  I have permanent joint damage as the disease hit me so quickly and help didn’t arrive in time.  I never thought I’d have to move back in with my parents or become disabled at the age of 20.  I never thought that my entire life might be focused around getting and keeping medical insurance so I can pay for the very medicines that may end up giving me horrible side effects in the future.  I was 19 and I just decided to get breast implants.  

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  Thanks for hanging in there.

 ~Kacey

Dear Mr. Savage,

I read your response to I Miss Her Boobs with dismay. You were honest in your inability to give good advice, but your answer rested on the assumption that this is just a sexual/cosmetic/emotional issue, when in fact it could be one of pure survival - the wife not wanting to extend the life-and-death struggle that all cancer patients go through.

The fact is, getting implants after a mastectomy is highly risky; complication rates for mastectomy patients are very high. One study shows that 46 percent of patients getting implants will need more surgery within three years of their reconstruction; numbers from similar reports (here and here, to start) show the same. Rather than bitterness towards the idea of breasts, I bet Mrs. I Miss Her Breasts is just happy to be alive and hopes never to see the inside of an operating room again.

Mr. Savage, I do feel sympathy for both husband and wife in this situation. Both are in mourning: he for her breasts and she for the security of a life without the specter of cancer. His wife has obviously been through some trauma and pain, and so has he. After something like cancer, both would want to be able to get their lives back on the track to normalcy, and of course that includes their sex lives. Now, however, both halves of this couple are in a different place than they were before, and dealing with this transition is never easy.

My personal experience underscores how difficult it is to get to a win-win situation out of something like this. As I underwent surgery after surgery to get breast implants that didn’t work, time after time, my husband felt my pain and discomfort to such an extent that he begged me not to try again after the second implant failure, the third implant failure and then the fourth implant failure. Yes, I had used eight implants. It was terribly upsetting to him that I was so sick because he thought I was only getting implants to please him. As we talked about it – and we talked a lot over that year and a half of constant surgery – breast implants were my way of trying to triumph over a disease that left me disfigured. Breast implants to him represented one step after another of chronic illness and he wanted me any way I was, as long as I was alive and not ill from implants and surgery.

Ultimately, I stopped trying implants and had natural tissue transfer surgery, which provided me with breasts I was pretty happy with. Perfecting nipple reconstruction and shape adjusting took a few more surgeries and with each surgery I could see that my relationship with my husband had become more strained. All he wanted was the security of my having a long life to share with him and he was offended that I thought that breasts were so important to him that I would risk so much discomfort and our relationship just to have them. It took a lot of time for us to heal our differences. And during that time we enjoyed finding other ways to please each other. That part was a wonderful journey for both of us and ultimately led to a complete recovery of our relationship. We’ve been married for over 46 years.

I hope that this couple talks to each other more so that the husband can fully understand why his wife doesn’t want to reconstruct. Whether this man likes it or not, breast cancer is now a part of this marriage. The compromise here shouldn’t be to accept a non-existent sex life but to embrace a new one. In time, exploring newer, more creative sexual activities may help him not miss those breasts so much. I know how possible this is, because I’ve been there.

Sincerely,

Sybil Goldrich