It’s not the breast-case scenario.
With the dangers of breast implants well-documented — from an increased risk of cancer to destroying eyesight — more women are opting to downsize their bountiful busts.
And one mom shared a gruesome discovery: After removing her saline implants, she found they were filled with mold — a complication that highlights growing concerns about breast implant safety.
Lauren went viral on social media after opening up about having her breast augmentation undone five years ago.
“This may be TMI for some of you, but it could also save some of your lives,” the Texas stay-at-home mom said before holding up her former implants in a plastic bag, with large black chunks floating inside both of them.
Although she’s been preserving them for years, she noted that the chunks of mold were already inside the saline pouches when they were removed from her body — and pointed out how close they had been to her heart.
It certainly wasn’t benign. Lauren explained in a follow-up video that the reason she decided to have her implants removed was because she’d developed a host of troubling symptoms, including “random hives” and a new gluten allergy.
“My skin was aging weird,” she said. “I was nauseous and vomiting almost every single day. I had joint pain, headaches, my anxiety was through the roof and even some depression, which I never had an issue with.”
Her health issues virtually disappeared after the implants were removed — prompting her to share a PSA with her followers that “saline doesn’t mean safe.”
Though it is extremely uncommon, a mold-friendly environment inside implants can develop if the seal is compromised during surgery.
The most common fungi that can grow are Aspergillus, which often appears as black mold, and Candida species.
Cases of mold growing inside breast implants are rare, but Lauren isn’t the only patient to discover extra growth after surgery.
Other patients have found orange globs of a moldy substance floating inside their implants and later experienced symptoms of breast implant illness (BII), a controversial disease that is not formally recognized because studies have not definitively established a causal link to the procedure or materials.
The condition includes symptoms such as joint and muscle pain or weakness, mental health problems, brain fog, fatigue, memory loss, chronic pain, hair loss, rashes and more, regardless of whether the implants are saline or silicone.
Women have previously claimed it felt as if they’d been “poisoned” by their implants, while others reported severe weight gain and adult acne.
The FDA has also issued previous warnings and safety updates around breast implants after multiple cases of potentially deadly squamous cell carcinoma — a type of skin cancer — and “various lymphomas” were reported in the capsule around the breast implant and in scar tissue.
While implants are widely considered safe, surgeons are divided on whether the procedure can cause illness.
Some insist that BII does not exist and that patients’ symptoms stem from unrelated health issues. Others, like Detroit “influencer” plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn, have changed their minds.
“Throughout my training, I was told [breast implant illness] was hogwash — and that’s what I believed,” Youn previously told The Post, noting that many patients don’t experience such extreme complications.
As thousands of women have reported unexplained symptoms, the FDA has urged more research into breast implants.
In a 2020 update, the agency said it lacks definitive evidence that implants cause systemic symptoms, but acknowledged that some patients’ symptoms may resolve after removal.
