Chrissy Powers says after six years of focusing on everything that felt wrong, she’s now focused on what feels good.
“I’m very grateful for where I am today compared to where I was this time last year.”
In early 2024, the 46-year-old mother spoke to CTV after she travelled from her home in Fredericton to Montreal for breast implant removal surgery, also known as explant surgery. At the time, Powers was concerned she was struggling with breast implant illness, or “BII”.
“There are definitely symptoms that have gone away since my surgery,” Powers says. “Primarily, the things that I’ve noticed is my hair loss – all my hair is growing back. My headaches have gotten better. Joint muscle pain is better. Brain fog and being able to focus short term memory issues… those have gotten a lot better as well. But it is kind of a hard thing to say for sure what’s linked to it, and what wasn’t.”
Health Canada uses breast implant illness as a term to describe various symptoms or diseases that people with breast implants have experienced, regardless of what implant was used. Reported symptoms include fatigue, joint paint, memory problems or inflammation. According to the public health agency, there have been published reports of disease in people with breast implants since the early 1980s but there is no test to diagnose for BII.
“I wouldn’t have gone through it probably from the beginning had I’d known about all of the different risks,” says Powers. “Or, went with a different type of reconstruction, not with implants.”
In 2018, Powers had a double mastectomy to lessen her chances of breast cancer after finding out she had the BRCA 2 gene mutation, which made her chances of developing breast cancer as high as 85 per cent. She had an immediate reconstruction with silicone implants. She says that’s when the BII symptoms started. She did some online searching and found her type of implant was part of a 2019 Health Canada recall linked to BIA-ALCL, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Powers travelled to Montreal in early 2024 to have her breast implants removed. The surgery and accommodations cost Powers close to $20,000.
“I would do it over again in a heartbeat,” she says. “I would love to see New Brunswick Medicare, in the future, really consider private clinic coverage. If would be nice if that’s something that can be looked at by Health Canada, by Medicare in general, because at the end of the day it’s just about getting New Brunswickers healthy again.”
In an email to CTV Atlantic, New Brunswick’s health department says Medicare only covers the removal of breast implants if the initial insertion was covered by Medicare. If the insert was not covered by Medicare (cosmetic), removal is not covered, unless the patient develops a severe infection, breast cancer, or other immediately life-threatening conditions that require removal.
Paying for private
The explant surgery was done by Montreal-based plastic surgeon Dr. Stephen Nicolaidis.
“If my patients weren’t all coming back saying how they feel better, then I wouldn’t continue doing what I’m doing,” says Nicolaidis. “Out of 1,100 explants… I could probably count on one, maximum two hands, the number of patients who say they didn’t feel a difference. Almost everybody feels better when the implants are removed, whether it’s for BII or mechanical reasons.”
Nicolaidis began focusing on explant surgeries in 2018 and decided to stop doing implant surgeries in 2021.
“I haven’t regretted the decision since,” says Nicolaidis. “I’m the leader [in explant surgery]. I’m quite certain I’m easily double the number of the next plastic surgeon in Canada.”
In a statement to CTV Atlantic, Health Canada says breast implant manufacturers are required to include box warnings of the risk of BIA-ALCL, patient decision checklists, and device cards to help trace a device. The statement goes on to say the “information is provided to health care professionals who are responsible to communicate this information with their patients through the informed consent process.”
Nicolaidis says “active discussions” are now underway in the medical community about potential risks associated with implants.
Nicolaidis performs between three and four surgeries a day. Each procedure takes approximately two hours. He said 20 to 30 per cent of his patients come from outside Montreal.
“The reason there’s this problem is because we downplayed it,” says Dr. Nicolaidis. “Even myself when I was a resident at McGill. We didn’t talk about the complications. Over the years we’ve realized between BII, cancers caused by certain implants, and recalls, so these patients are upset because they weren’t told way back when about all these risks.”
Health Canada has published a factsheet for people considering breast implants, and a safety review of BII to help people make informed decisions.
“Whether it’s BII or just the natural complications with an implant, patients need to know they’re looking at easily a 20 to 30 per cent revision rate just for complications,” Nicolaidis says. He says more research needs to be done that isn’t funded by breast implant companies.
“One of the big issues now is there’s still a huge amount of conflict of interest,” Nicolaidis says. “You can understand in this industry it’s a huge industry, a billion-dollar industry. So, there’s always this conflict of interest and, including research that’s being done. So, you know, now with social media, these BII people have gotten together and complained and have more of a voice.”
Becoming an advocate
Powers said she is focused on being an advocate for BII and the risks associated with breast implants or other medical devices.
“I’m speaking primarily about breast implants because that’s my personal experience, but medical devices in general,” Powers says. “Often times we’re not fully given all of the side effects, or the repercussions of having medical devices in our bodies. It’s not until months or years later that you start experiencing issues. Then it’s this back and forth with your family doctor trying to understand what it could be because you’re not going back to your plastic surgeon, right? When you are complaining of headaches a year later, or joint muscle pain or blurred vision, you’re going to your family physician. It’s a vicious circle.”
In a statement, Health Canada said, “it continues to monitor the potential risk of BII symptoms and diseases and will take appropriate action if any changes to the health risks are identified.” The agency has a website site where Canadians can subscribe for breast implant updates.
Powers continues follow-up appointments with her family doctor and Nicolaidis while she shares her story to educate more people.
“If I’ve learned anything over the course of this last 18 months, it’s to listen to your body. If something doesn’t feel right, trust your gut.”
With files from CTV’s Laura Brown
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