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Not only are you already perfectly made, your LIFE is too precious for breast implants ...

Melissa Melnychuk

In 2010 I competed in my first fitness competition, I was the leanest I have ever been. I had also just finished breastfeeding a babe that sucked me dry. So I was left with what looked like inverted little dried-up raisin boobies. In the fitness industry everyone, and I mean everyone had implants. It was just a natural part of the process. It was not looked down upon, and that was the space and place I spent most of my time. When I was fitted for a competition suit to wear on stage, it was near impossible for me to curtsy or move without exposing my wrinkly raisins (this is what I called them at the time, and I was mortified by them).


So I decided, that as I progressed through my fitness career, I was going to invest in something that made me feel beautiful.

I did a ton of research, on the type I wanted, the surgeon of choice, healing - everything.

I looked at this as a form of self-love. I was not comfortable in my skin and like everyone around us dieted or worked out to change their body, I normalized this "change" to be just the same


(Even though now I hate breast implants, dieting and working out to change your body)


Okay so back to the implants. I got them. I loved them. I filled out my clothes again. I could still breastfeed my next baby when she was born. I had no issues with competition suits and I felt that my upper body matched my thicker lower body.

I was just fine with my choice.

But at the same time, I wasn't.

I became increasingly insecure about shirts that exposed too much cleavage.

I had someone say to me once "You talk about being healthy, and you put a foreign object in your body' - and I was like... damn, that hit home. But at that time, I shrugged it off because I felt confident in the research that I did. The plastic surgeon convinced me this was the SAFEST of all plastic surgery. That your body creates this protective little capsule and you are not impacted at all.


Well.. was he ever wrong, and did things ever take a drastic change for me.


As the years went on I started hearing about Breast Implant Illness, and I again shrugged that off because I did not think I had that.


I had a friend who got implants and shortly afterward said she was experiencing pain as if her body was rejecting them. She ended up getting them removed shortly after- raving about how much better she felt when she did.

A little part of me was curious, was this not as safe as the plastic surgeon society and every Instagram influencer with implants wants me to believe?

But I still did not look much deeper into the thought, because I was fine.




Well, I will never forget the day, I got sent an article about MY breast implants being recalled. I looked up my lot # and sure enough, mine were recalled because they were tied to a type of breast cancer.


Oh, did I ever panic! I rushed to my surgeon's office, to only be... dismissed.


He told me it was so rare. That it is safer to keep them in, instead of going through surgery to take them out. He told me I would not like myself and my body anymore if I took them out. And told me it would cost me more to explant, than the implant surgery did. He talked down to me and let me walk out of his office with my tail between my legs embarrassed and confused at the same time.


I went home and felt defeated. But I wanted to trust my Dr. so badly.


Time went on and something in me urged me to start to dig deeper. A friend of mine invited me to a FB group - Breast Implant Illness and Healing by Nicole

This group had over 150k women in it who had implants and were faced with illnesses that were starting to be linked to breast implants. So I started digging. I read stories, watched videos, asked questions... and things started to really make me feel uncomfortable.



When I went through that list, I had over 25 symptoms - but each one I kind of just ignored (which we all tend to do).


These are a few I had

  • Fatigue

  • Brain fog, memory loss, cognition problems

  • Muscle pain and weakness

  • Joint pain of the neck, shoulder, back, hip, knee, hands/feet

  • Hair loss, dry hair

  • Premature aging of skin

  • Skin itching, various rashes

  • Weight problems

  • Inflammation

  • Insomnia and poor sleep

  • Dry eyes, decline in vision

  • Slow healing, easy bruising

  • Fevers, night sweats, heat intolerance

  • Persistent bacterial and viral infections (one that caused neutropenia blood disorder)


The list went on, but I was like.. whoa. And I was not even that bad some women's stories of their immune systems crashing, heart attack-like pain, infections - it was horrible.


But still, I had a surgeon who even when I called back - denied that my list was connected to my implants and said I should go see my general doctor.


Well luckily (but not enjoyably) something happened that changed everything.


I got an infection.


One day as I was getting ready for bed I started to feel feverish and my left breast felt tender and hot. It started to look like the mastitis I had while nursing my daughter, and it continued to get worse the next day. So I called my doctor and he booked me in right away. he confirmed that I had an infection, was very concerned, and wanted to do more testing ASAP.


I told him my concerns, and that my plastic surgeon shrugged them off.

He was quite angry because he believed in Breast Implant Illness and said,


"This is your surgeons responsibility to take care of you - but he does not care, his job is about making money and selling to you.  I will take care of this from now on."

And he did. I was quickly admitted to a Breast Cancer outpatient clinic and had multiple tests and screenings done. The results came back and showed that I had an infection, and there were alarming amounts of inflammation and fluids collecting in my breast tissue. They also were concerned that the implant had ruptured.


They suggested immediate removal, and a full pathology report on the fluids.

So, I went back to my surgeon with these results and his response was,


"They don't know, I can't tell that they are not ruptured. Okay if you want them out we can do that, and book a lift and smaller implant that is safer and has no ties to cancer."


I told him I did NOT want another implant.


He looked at me and sighed before he responded,


"You will not be attractive when I take these out. Your skin is not good, you will sag and you will hate it. You won't want anyone to look at you, and you are still young. Do you want that for yourself? If you don't want an implant, well then we can do a fat transfer so that it does not look AS bad..."

Tears built up in my eyes because I am sitting here with a medical concern, a doctor who is not sympathetic at all and is in so many words telling me I will be ugly after this surgery.


I said thank you and walked out to let the tears flow in my car.


I searched for a new doctor after that - and luckily saw a post from a young woman in Toronto who shared her experience with BII, her surgeon, and a fantastic surgeon who did an explant and reconstructive surgery for her. She sat with me, messaging back and forth, sharing pictures, support, and love for weeks, and I went to her doctor to have an assessment.


The time around this doctor listened, although he is well trained to obviously not speak about BII, he listened to my concerns and said - "Well, let's get them out!"


And that we did. He put me on an emergency call list, and 3 weeks later I was booked in for removal.


DEEP. SIGH. OF. RELIEF.




I won't share much past this, the surgery went well, as did my recovery.


I have little itty bitties now again, and I love them. ❤️




But here is what I will share.


I was embarrassed and ashamed to tell this story for so long because I knew that people would judge me.


And I get it, hey, it may even be you, as you read this blog thinking:


- She should have known better

- She did this to herself

- Wow she talks about self-love.... but had fake boobs

- Why would she have ever put fake chemicals in her body


Or whatever else, it's cool. I get it.


But, at the same time... Hi! I think a lot of us have put some messed up chemicals in our body when we ate TV dinners, went to parties, drank our faces of, botox, ... whatever... just trying to keep it light and REAL here. I am not writing this to be judged, I am writing this because it may help ONE other women facing issues with her health or validate her experience with her implants.


That phase in my life (almost 15 years ago) ... implants was my choice, and I will not judge myself for that. You know what, here I am 15 years later -more mature, more accepting of my body, and in a totally different place and space than I was then.


I am PROUD of my growth - but I am also not going to hide it for my own insecurities if I can help prevent ONE other woman for getting these toxic bags put in her body.


I am writing this so there is a page that maybe someone lands on when they are considering the process -so they can read my story. And if that is you - please feel free to DM me on my Instagram - I will answer all and any questions.


But also am writing this to remind me and you, that self-care and self-love is a journey, a process, it is growth and it is forever evolving. Now in my early 40's, I know that my body was perfectly made and I cannot hate parts of it, if I want to love it. I have to embrace, I have to care for, I have to trust my body. We are consumed with images in media that sell us the idea of buying what you don't have, to look like that, to be her....

And we need to PAUSE.

We need to listen to our hearts.

We need to prioritize health wealth.


Listen, the self-love process is a slow growth journey, but when you are there - you know you are in the right garden.

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