A mom-of-four has spoken out about being "slowly poisoned" by her DD breast implants, which she claims caused such severe memory loss that she feared she was developing dementia.
Rachel Misztal-Bazzell of New York was just 21 when she decided to go under the knife and enhance her bust back in 2004 - originally opting for saline implants to increase her chest from a B cup to a C.
"I wasn’t insecure about my chest – it was more that I was just attracted to the look. I wanted big boobs, it was as simple as that," she said, spending $5,000 (£3,994) on the procedure.
Admittedly a fan of more curvaceous bodies, the massage therapist then had her implants replaced and increased to a DD cup in 2013, after breastfeeding left her with unsightly skin dimpling.
This time, however, Rachel opted to have silicone implants, forking out another $7,500 (£5,991) for the larger bust.
Fast-forward two years to 2015, and Rachel - who lives with her four children and husband, Bill, 39 - started breaking out in rashes. This was the start of a long and bizarre list of health implications.
As time went on, Rachel suffered from hair loss, bloating, anxiety, depression, fatigue, a near-constant ringing in her ears, itchy eyes, swelling all over her body, congestion, and brain fog - all of which she later attributed to breast implant illness (BII).
"I initially put it down to age and the stress of being a mom. But no matter what I tried, the symptoms just got worse and worse," she said, adding:
"I went to lots of doctors, both general medicine and specialists, and they really wanted to help, but just didn’t know how.
"They gave me things to treat each individual symptom, but nobody could explain why they had all suddenly started in the first place."
Being unable to remember simple things, Rachel genuinely feared she had early-onset dementia, saying: "I would forget entire conversations and was constantly missing appointments. Even writing notes to myself as reminders didn’t help. It was like being in a constant out-of-body experience.
"It got to the point where I was constantly apologizing to everyone in my life for missing meetings or forgetting things they had told me. It was terrifying. I even feared it was early-onset dementia."
After doctors were left baffled by symptoms, Rachel searched the internet for answers - eventually coming across a Facebook page about BII. After reading about the condition, she became convinced that she had it.
She said: "I went online and found a Facebook group. Reading the hundreds of stories from other women, I immediately related to them.
"I believe without a shadow of a doubt I also had BII and that it was the implants causing my symptoms. By that point, I absolutely hated them and just wanted them gone."
Despite many women claiming to suffer from BII, no official test yet exists for the condition.
In fact, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) says it is not a medical diagnosis, but a term coined by women who believe they have developed symptoms including joint ache, sleep disturbance, headaches, chills, and neurological issues as a result of implants.
However, BAAPS acknowledges that one BII Facebook group with more than 50,000 members all reporting similar stories is not a coincidence, and now studies into BII are underway in Australia and the USA.
Certain that her breast implants were the cause of her symptoms, Rachel opted to have them removed in June 2019.
Since then, she has recovered so well that she no longer takes any of the medication she needed when she felt at her worst.
She said: "For sure, there have been times when I have questioned if this has all been in my head and some people have told me they don’t believe BII is real.
"But they have all changed their minds after seeing the difference in me since I had my silicone implants removed. It was like suddenly waking up from a coma."
She continued: "I no longer bloat, my hair is thick again, my eyes are whiter, my skin is clear, I have more energy – the list goes on. I used to take loads of medication to combat all the symptoms, which I no longer need."
Speaking about the process of finding a surgeon willing to remove her implants, Rachel said:
"I am not accusing surgeons of having done anything wrong, or asking anybody to take responsibility for what has happened to me, as not everybody with implants has issues.
"But finding a surgeon who believed women when they said they had BII was very important to me.
"It’s still quite contested in the medical profession, but both the surgeon who took my implants out and my GP have been so supportive.
"They’ve agreed that it makes a lot of sense. At the end of the day, my implants were a foreign body that my own body was trying to get rid of, but instead, it ended up attacking itself.
"My surgeon told me he had seen BII before and knew it was very possible and plausible. My GP has even asked if she can tell my story to other patients who have implants to help raise awareness."
In June of 2019, Rachel paid a further $6,000 (£4,794) to have her implants removed and, despite suffering a lot of pain at first, she says that right away she could tell her operation had been successful, as her eyes immediately seemed far brighter.
Within five days, her brain fog began to lift and she felt much more "alive" and energized.
In the year since having surgery, she has gone from strength to strength and now no longer requires any of her old medication.
Rachel now wants to raise awareness of BII – which several celebrities, such as Chrissy Teigen - have shared their own experiences of. She said: "It’s very clear to me that my implants were what was making me sick.
"I’d encourage other women who have bizarre symptoms and are struggling to connect the dots to look into BII. It’s been a long, painful road, but I am finally back to the old me."
