By Dr. Killeen, published on December 26, 2025
You deserve good evidence-based care like every patient with every other type of medical problem. Don't fall victim to these scams.
This is one of the hardest questions in breast surgery. You've had implants for a long time, your health has changed, and you want to know if your implants are responsible. Here's how to approach it.
Systemic symptoms from breast implants — sometimes called breast implant illness (BII) — is a diagnosis of exclusion. That means there's no test that can confirm it. Instead, we have to rule out other conditions that can be tested for before we consider the implants as the cause.
Your first stop should always be your primary care doctor. Make sure you've had all age-appropriate:
This is the most important step if you're not feeling well. Dr. Killeen has seen many women come in for implant removal who never saw their primary doctor first. When sent back for a proper workup, serious — but easily manageable — health problems were found. They felt much better, and it was never the implants.
If your primary care doctor has done a thorough workup and everything comes back normal with no explanation for your symptoms, it's reasonable to consider removing your breast implants.
Multiple studies across multiple countries have now shown that implant removal alone improves symptoms in about two-thirds of women who believe their implants are causing their health issues. So explant surgery is a completely reasonable option when serious medical problems have been ruled out.
Ideally, researchers will figure out exactly what's happening in patients who develop symptoms from their implants. The ultimate goal would be to identify at-risk patients before they get implants so they never have to experience these problems. We're just not there yet.
Be very cautious of anyone who claims they can:
You deserve good, evidence-based care — just like every patient with every other medical condition. Don't fall victim to these scams.