LOS ANGELES — For nearly five years, Kerri Geary lived what she describes as a nightmare.
“My symptoms started almost immediately,” Geary recalls.
After getting silicone breast implants in 2015, she started feeling sick. The severe pains, worsening vision and hot flashes came suddenly.
Despite countless doctor visits and numerous tests, her blood always came back normal.
No one could explain her symptoms.
“I have something foreign in my body and my body reacts in different ways,” she said.
Geary’s health struggles worsened, reaching a point where she experienced such severe memory loss that she could not remember the basic details of her daily life.
That, for Geary, was the last straw.
“It was scary,” he said. “I couldn’t remember anything.”
It wasn’t until Geary found information online about breast implant illness, or BII, that she suspected the implants might be the root cause of her pain. He discovered a list of 50 symptoms associated with the condition – he had 27 of them.
Breast augmentation remains the most popular plastic surgery procedure in the U.S., with about 300,000 procedures performed each year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Despite its popularity, some patients like Geary report serious health problems.
In 2019, Geary made the difficult decision to have her implants removed and replaced with fat transfer, a more natural alternative. She said her recovery was almost immediate.
“The night of my surgery, I actually looked in the mirror and my face looked different,” she said.
Geary found Dr. Ritu Chopra, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills who specializes in “implant” surgery, the removal of breast implants. Chopra said he stopped doing implant surgery after being inundated with patients presenting with unexplained illnesses.
“We didn’t know why they were sick, but once we got their implants out, they felt better,” Chopra explained.
While not all breast implant patients get sick, Chopra estimates that between 5% and 10% may experience health problems. In October 2021, the FDA approved new labeling to warn patients about the potential risks of breast implants.
“The new labeling warns patients that there is a potential side effect of breast implants and that they could get sick,” Chopra said.
Chopra said the Internet has become a powerful tool for women facing similar issues, with online support groups and thousands of women raising awareness about breast implant disease.
Now, Geary considers herself a survivor of breast implant disease and is committed to sharing her story in hopes of helping others.
“If it helps just one person by opening up and telling my story, then I’m very grateful,” Geary said.
