Is Silicone Safe?

There has been a lot of controversy about the use of silicone-filled implants. Silicone's advantage is that it is most like the normal breast in weight and consistency. An implant after mastectomy sits just under the surface of the skin and is what a person feels when he or she touches the breast area. (When a woman uses an implant simply to increase the size of her existing breast, the implant sits behind the breast and is far from a surface touch.) A saline implant may feel like a water balloon, but a silicone-filled implant will feel more like natural breast tissue.

Some women believe they have been damaged by leaking silicone fluid—specifically, that they developed autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and lupus—and many lawsuits have been filed against the manufacturers of silicone implants. For this reason, the federal government has decided that any woman who wants silicone implants must participate in an ongoing study. Your surgeon will have to enter you in a national registry that follows all women with silicone implants over the long term. Information about your health will be reported to the registry regularly by your doctor.

Based on a great deal of research in the United States and overseas, it appears that—as a group—women with silicone implants are no more likely to get arthritis or lupus than women without the implants. Most surgeons and oncologists are satisfied that today's silicone implants are safe. But for an individual woman who has had a bad outcome with a silicone implant, the experience can be a nightmare. A leaking silicone implant should be removed. The body may react to leaking silicone by forming scar tissue. This may cause discomfort for the woman and an irregular shape to the breast. Though it rarely occurs, very small amounts of liquid silicone can travel to other parts of the body.

Peanut and soybean oils are currently being tested for possible use in implants, because they offer a denser, more natural breast feeling than saline and, if they leak, these oils can be safely absorbed by the body without scarring.