“The Bachelorette” alum Clare Crawley is opening up about the health scare she says led her to have her breast implants removed.
Crawley, 41, will celebrate two years since her implant surgery in July.
She told ABC News’ Zohreen Shah that she is healthier and happier without her implants, which she said caused her health problems for years.
“It was absolutely exhausting,” Crawley said of her health issues, as well as her long battle to find a diagnosis. “It had its impact on my life, my relationships, my family, my social life.”
She continued, “My body was just working overtime and I thought, it shouldn’t be like this. I should be feeling at this age.”
Clare Crawley talks to ABC News’ Zohreen Shah about her decision to have her breast implants removed.
ABC News
Crawley said she decided to undergo breast augmentation surgery after appearing on “The Bachelor” franchise. She appeared on Juan Pablo Galavis’ season of “The Bachelor” in 2014, as well as the first two seasons of “Bachelor in Paradise” and was the star of “The Bachelorette” in 2020.
Crawley said being in the public eye led to an “insecurity” about her breast size.
“I didn’t initially get breast augmentation when I was first on TV, on ‘The Bachelor,’ and I was surrounded by beautiful women,” Crawley said. “Being small-breasted at the time, for me, made me feel like I wasn’t supposed to be feminine and it gave me this big insecurity.”
Claire Crawley on an episode of The Bachelor in 2014.
Francisco Roman/Disney via Getty Images
Once Crawley had the implants inserted, she said she immediately felt uncomfortable, both physically and mentally.
“I loved it at first, but it almost backfired where I started wearing sports bras all the time,” she said. “I started covering up more because they couldn’t feel my body, obviously it wasn’t, but it just felt huge.”
Physically, Crawley said she developed rashes all over her body, which led to her seeing different doctors two to three times a month to try to find the cause.
It was a pattern she said continued for the next eight years as she experienced more and more health problems, which led to more doctor visits to try to figure out what was wrong.
Claire Crawley on the 2020 episode of The Bachelorette.
Craig Sjodin/ABC via Getty Images
He said over the years, doctors considered other diagnoses.
“I was diagnosed with everything but breast implant disease, because it wasn’t a thing back then,” she said. “And I actually asked my doctors about it, ‘I could [my implants] does this cause? This is the only thing that is stable in my body.”
Crawley said as she began to do her own research, she concluded that she may be suffering from breast implant disease, a term coined by clinicians and patients to describe symptoms reported by women after breast reconstruction or augmentation using implants, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. Breast implant disease is not an official medical diagnosis and investigation remained unclear about any relationship between breast implants and long-term health.
Crawley said she also found a doctor who specializes in breast implant surgeries, which she said was the first time she learned of people choosing to have their breast implants removed for health-related reasons.
“I thought you’d take them off because you just don’t like them anymore,” Crawley said. “Or you take them off because you’re exchanging them for a different pair.”
Crawley said a turning point for her was when she went for a mammogram, only to be told that her implants were blocking her breast tissue on the scan, so she would need additional testing.
“I thought, I don’t deserve this,” Crawley recalls. “If you can’t even see what’s going on in there, take them out.”
Crawley underwent breast implant surgery in July 2021 and said she immediately felt lighter in her body.
“I could take the deepest, freshest breath ever,” he said. “It wasn’t just physically good, it felt amazing… I felt like my body was like, ‘Ah, thank you.’
Clare Crawley speaks to ABC News during an interview on Nightline.
ABC News
Crawley said that while she feels better and more confident about her body today, she still struggles with permanent side effects that can come from the implants in her body, including ongoing rashes.
Although some women have improvement in symptoms after implant surgery, some women report ongoing complications. The relationship between symptoms and surgery is unclear.
Breast implant procedures are on the rise
Crawley, who got married earlier this year, shared her health journey publicly on social media, including
She told ABC News that she thinks it’s important for her to share her story to give a voice to other women who may also be struggling.
“She was able to give me a platform where I could talk to other women and say, ‘You’re not crazy either. What you’re going through, what you’re experiencing, you’re not alone in this.’ There are all these millions of other women going through the same thing,” Crawley said. “It’s challenged me a lot, but being able to speak out just reaffirms more of who I am and what I believe.”
In the United States, breast implant surgeries are on the rise, according to data.
In 2020, plastic surgeons removed more than 36,000 breast implant augmentations, up nearly 8% from the previous year, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
While that number has increased, breast implant surgery remains one of the five most popular cosmetic procedures, a position it has held since 2006, according to the group.
Breast implant disease, the condition that causes some people to have their implants removed, is not an official diagnosis. However, the FDA is now monitoring the symptoms to investigate a possible association with breast implant disease.
The condition is described by experts as a “diagnosis by exclusion,” according to Diana ZuckermanPh.D., president of the National Center for Health Research, who has studied the health impact of breast implants for more than 30 years.
“Diagnosis by exclusion means there’s no test for it, but there are tests for other things that have the same or similar symptoms,” Zuckerman, who was not involved in Crawley’s medical treatment, told ABC News last year. “And if there’s no other reason for this array of symptoms, then there are doctors who will call it breast implant disease.”
There are up to 40 symptoms of breast implant disease, but the most common symptoms include joint and muscle pain, fatigue, memory problems or brain fog, hair loss and difficulty breathing, according to Zuckerman. She said it can take years for breast implants to start causing complications, making it harder to link complications to breast implants.
Breast implants can cause harm if they leak into the body or because they can cause scar tissue to form in the body, according to Zuckerman.
In the US, the two types of breast implants approved for use are saline-filled and silicone gel. according to the FDA.
In October, the FDA released new guidelines for breast implants, adding a black box warning and a checklist for doctors and patients about potential side effects.
“The patient must be given the opportunity to initial and sign the patient decision checklist and must be signed by the physician implanting the device,” The FDA noted in its guidance.
