About a thousand people have reported health problems after having breast implants in the past five years. The complaints vary from joint pain to concentration problems.
The complaints were received by the Reporting Center and Expertise Center for Implant Side Effects (MEBI), which is part of the RIVM and was established in July 2017. Up to and including December 2019, the reporting center received 476 reports. That number has now doubled to 977. According to the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate, 20,000 to 30,000 women receive a breast implant every year.
People report fatigue, joint pain, concentration problems, muscle pain and capsular contracture, among other things. The body then builds a kind of membrane around the implant, which causes pain over time. In addition, memory problems are reported, where there is difficulty in finding words.
Two out of five complaints were made more than five years after implant placement. The patients were on average 46 years old. According to the RIVM, these are complaints “which the reporter suspects are caused by breast implants”. The institute does not say whether there is actually a direct connection.
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