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FDA panel explores whether breast implants could be making women sick

For the past two days, a U.S. Food & Drug Administration panel has been meeting about breast implant safety.

An Action News Jax Investigation in February found that tens of thousands of women are getting their implants removed because they believe the implants are poisoning them.

The scientific community disagrees about whether breast implant illness is real, even though at least two major studies published last year indicate a possible connection between breast implants and autoimmune disorders.

Six months after getting saline implants, Charlton County mom Chelsea Rhoads told Action News Jax she started getting sick.

The 26-year-old said symptoms such as fatigue, migraines, hormone imbalance, depression and food allergies came out of nowhere.

“Watching my husband have to take care of my kids and me, it was really hard. Because I’m young. I’m supposed to be the mom. I’m supposed to be the wife. I’m supposed to be going out, doing the things that normal people our age do. And I was unable,” Rhoads said.

Rhoads had her breast implants surgically removed 10 weeks ago.

She's one of tens of thousands of women who believe their implants are making them sick.

Some of them testified in front of the FDA General and Plastic Surgery Devices panel this week.

“We need to have, as a baseline, a full list of ingredients – and that be given to patients. Because now, we’ve got a whole soup of things inside of women and we don’t know what they’re reacting to,” said patient representative Dr. Natalie Compagni Portis, as multiple women attending the meeting applauded.

The FDA panel generally agreed that there isn’t enough data to prove whether breast implants are poisoning some women.

A big discussion over the past two days has been the best way to collect data to answer that question and protect patients.

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“You know, I feel like we’ve failed women with regards to implants. We failed to inform. We failed to follow up. We failed to listen,” Dr. Compagni-Portis said.

After having her implants removed, Rhoads said her symptoms have disappeared.

“I don’t want them to be able to ignore us. Because it’s not just in our minds. And, unfortunately, I was told that multiple times by my doctors,” Rhoads said.

In 2017, the FDA put out a warning that people with breast implants have a risk of developing a specific cancer called Breast-Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. Although rare, it's significantly more common in women with textured surface implants.

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