Understanding Your Breasts: Making an Informed Decision About
Breast Implants
A woman's breast is a gland that produces milk in late pregnancy
and after childbirth. Each breast is made of lobes which are
groups of milk glands called lobules. Lobules are arranged
around thin tubes called ducts which carry the milk to the
nipple. These lobules and ducts make up what is referred to as
the glandular tissue.
As with any gland or organ within the human body, some
imperfections are likely to occur. Perhaps you feel that your
breasts are too small, poorly shaped, or maybe you have lost a
breast to a disease like cancer.
Despite a decade of controversy over their safety, breast
implants are more popular than ever among women who want to
build upon what nature gave them or who want to restore what
disease has taken away. Whatever the reason, opting for breast
implants is a personal decision that should be made only after a
woman fully understands and accepts the potential risks of the
devices and the importance of follow-up evaluations with her
physician.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS),
there were nearly 255,000 breast enhancement implant procedures
performed in 2003, nearly twice the number done in 1998. An
additional 68,000 women received breast implants for
reconstructive purposes following mastectomy due to cancer or
other disease.
Breast implants are designed for augmentation, a cosmetic
procedure; reconstruction; and replacement of existing implants,
called revision. There are two primary types of implants:
saline-filled and silicone gel-filled. Depending on the type of
implant, the shell is either pre-filled with a fixed volume of
solution or filled through a valve during the surgery to the
desired size. Breast implants vary in shape, size and shell
texture.
Some medical care providers say that using breast implants to
rebuild the breast (reconstruction), or change its size and
shape (augmentation), significantly improves the quality of life
for many women. Advocates of breast implants also say that a
woman's consent to the surgery should be considered valid as
long as she carefully weighs the risks and benefits of the
procedure.
While every surgical procedure has potential risks, such as
infection, bleeding, and scarring, there a some risks that are
specific to breast implants--leakage from the implant, actual
rupture of the implant, and nerve damage which causes some women
a loss of sensation in their nipples and breast tissue. Learning
about these specific risks is key to truly understanding the
procedure.
If you need additional information about any issue concerning
your breasts--whether it be a breast-feeding question or
concerns about breast cancer-- search the Internet to find
hundreds of websites dealing with all issues pertaining to the
human breast.