Plastic Assets - Invest in your Breasts!


Be honest. When you logged on to www.plasticassets.com you were: a) Initially thrilled at the opportunity but concerned that the offer was too good to be true? b) Shocked and appalled by its over-the-top crass exploitation of women's appearance insecurities? or c) Skeptically amused, concluding that it had to be a spoof? Whatever your reaction, we hope you pass the site on to friends and colleagues, because millions of women are under the impression that breast implants are safe... That they've been tested over many years and judged by independent experts to cause no harm to women's bodies. Their views are based on high-profile make-over TV shows, the abundance of implanted Hollywood stars, and the growing popularity of implants among housewives and school girls. I believed the hype too - until I started researching a book about beauty for teens, In Your Face - The Culture of Beauty and You. Then I discovered all sorts of information that rarely gets published in women's magazines or broadcast on prime time TV... Information divorced from the vested interests of plastic surgeons and implant manufacturers, whose ad dollars help to censor commercial media... Research that has been reviewed and analyzed from the perspective of women's safety, not corporate profitability. Here's what I found: hundreds of thousands of women are playing Russian roulette with their future health and financial security. They're either unaware of, or have discounted, the Top Ten Reasons for Avoiding Breast Implants Like the Plague. But don't take my word for it. Visit http://www.breastimplantinfo.org This site is run by a non-profit research center focused on women's health. The people behind it don't make a dime if you get breast implants. They only care about your safety and well-being. This is unfortunately NOT true about most of the websites that pop up if you google "breast implants". Even sites like "Nicole's" (it's usually first on the list) are sponsored by plastic surgeons or the implant companies. And they're twisting the facts to suit their profit motives. They have lots of evidence to show that you have a good chance of becoming ill and bankrupt if you get implants, but that's not the information they highlight. In fact, such sites prevent women with implant problems from contributing to their chat rooms. Think twice before you get implants. Share this site and the information it links to with your friends. WHO WE ARE Shari Graydon (http://www.sharigraydon.com) is a journalist, media critic, speaker and award-winning author. She initiated the plastic assets project in order to draw attention to the devastating impact of breast implants on hundreds of thousands of women. Her book, In Your Face - The Culture of Beauty and You has been called "a junior version" of Naomi Wolf's classic, doing "for young girls what The Beauty Myth did for their mothers." It offers the lowdown on beauty research, explores the fickle side of the industry, and provides the inside scoop on modeling. Booklist called it "upbeat" and "hilarious", saying "Graydon looks closely at the concept of beauty, never denying the difficulties of resisting current trends as she exposes the sneaky strategies behind media hype..." You can buy it at www.amazon.ca and reach Shari at in.your.face.sg@hotmail.com The Panty Raiders: Girls Ambushing Your Media (http://www.pantyraiders.org) The Panty Raiders is an organization of women artists challenging traditional notions of sex, politics and pop culture. We are all over your internet, and we are on your block. We are messing with your head, and messing with the airwaves. We are the ones keeping you up at night. Don't find us, we'll find you. Founded in 2005 by NY-based artists Katie Marsh and Leba Haber Rubinoff, the squad of Panty Raiders has been growing ever since. Get in touch with us! Email Shari at: in.your.face.sg@hotmail.com
	TOP 10 REASONS FOR AVOIDING BREAST IMPLANTS LIKE THE PLAGUE 1. BREAST ROULETTE - Are you a gambling woman? Prepared to roll the dice with your health? Because that's what's involved in getting breast implants. The list of potential complications and physical problems are as long as your arm. In addition to the risks associated with anesthetic and major surgery, other common complications include infection, bleeding, swelling, breakage and leakage, necrosis (skin death), hardening of the scar tissue and/or implant. And that's just in the short term! Research has found that women who've had implants for seven years or more are also much more likely to develop fibromyalgia, a painful auto-immune disease. Others have reported rheumatologic symptoms and neurological disease. Not every woman will have immediate complications, or develop debilitating immune symptoms that cripple the lives of some. But there's no way to predict who will be OK, and who won't. 2. CANCER? WHAT CANCER? - You already know that breast cancer affects one in nine North American women. While current research suggests that implants don't increase a woman's chance of developing breast cancer, they can make it much more difficult to detect. Implants interfere with both mammograms and with breast self exams. And cancerous growths that are caught at later stages are more likely to have spread. Even more concerning, the National Cancer Institute's research has found that breast implant patients are twice as likely to die from brain cancer and three times more likely to die from lung cancer, compared to other plastic surgery patients of the same age. Yikes! 3. NO PAIN, NO GAIN? - When researching a newspaper article on breast implants last year, I interviewed a number of women who described the pain they experienced from their breast implant surgery as being "worse than childbirth" and making them feel like they'd been "run over by a truck." This pain typically fades within a couple of weeks, but some women develop complications that continue to cause them extreme discomfort. Scar tissue that surrounds the implants inside your body can harden and squeeze the implant, and nipples can become hypersensitive so that even wearing a t-shirt is uncomfortable. Other women report shooting pains that radiate down their arms, or chronic and debilitating aches (see above). What's the point of having perfect c-cup breasts if you're in too much pain to leave the house and can't bear to be touched? 4. PAY NOW, PAY LATER - You can expect to pay between $4,000 and $6,000 to get breast implants, depending on where you have the surgery done, and who performs it. But, as even the implant manufacturers admit, the products don't last forever. Most break and/or have to be replaced within 10 years. Replacement or removal operations are trickier to do than the original surgery, and cost more - between $8,000 and $15,000. The MRI tests that are recommended every couple of years to determine if and when silicone implants are leaking cost another $2,000 to $3,000. For a 20-year-old woman who's hoping to live until she's 80, that adds up to an investment of between $100,000 and $200,000 - if nothing else goes wrong. And that's not counting the lost employment revenues she's likely to experience as a result of time off for the surgery and related health complications. 5. HOW GOOD IS YOUR MEDICAL INSURANCE? - In fact, an independent study found that implanted women visit their doctors and are hospitalized exponentially more often than other women of the same age. Some develop chronic flu symptoms that plague them for years. Others become so ill they can't work. Health insurers know this. That's why most are reluctant to insure women with breast implants - even after they've had them removed. And insurance companies don't pay to remove implants, even if they are leaking or deflated. Can you afford to pay for the ongoing costs of implants yourself? Think about what else you'll have to give up to do so. 6. SO MUCH FOR A MOTHER'S GIFT OF LIFE - To hear my friend Colleen tell it, breast feeding her kids was one of the most satisfying experiences of her life. But women who have implants are three times less likely than other women to have enough milk to be able to breastfeed. In addition, several studies have shown that bacteria or mold can grow in saline implants. No research has yet been done to determine what impact that might have on a nursing baby. And a recent study found that women with silicone gel implants may have dangerous levels of platinum in their breast milk as a result of the implants. 7. BUT - GULP - I WANTED TO LOOK BETTER! - Some women, even if they don't have medical complications, become unhappy with their implants' appearance after a few years. They don't like the way they're positioned, they wish they'd picked a different size, or they don't like how unnatural their fake breasts actually look. Surgeons reassure nervous patients who ask smart questions about potential complications or risks with the advice that "If you end up having problems, you can just take them out." What they don't tell you is that if you didn't like your breasts before the implants, you'll likely hate them afterwards. Because when the implants are removed, your breasts often look really saggy and stretched out. Knowing this, many surgeons will refuse to remove the implants unless they are replaced, which often only prolongs the problems. 8. NO SHOULDER TO CRY ON - If you're like most women, some - if not many - of your friends or family members will discourage you from getting implants. If you ignore their advice, it's pretty difficult to turn to them for sympathy and support when things go wrong. Women who develop serious health problems and are unable to work need a support network more than ever before. But confronted with the knowledge that their illness may stem from their own failure to consider seriously the evidence against implants, many are understandably reluctant to seek help from people who might be inclined to shrug, "I told you so." 9. SUICIDE - Five research studies have found that women with breast implants are at least three times more likely to commit suicide than other plastic surgery patients. This doesn't necessarily mean that implants cause suicide - perhaps women who are unhappy with their bodies and hoping that implants will improve their lives don't experience the benefits they'd counted on. And those unhappy feelings may be made much worse by physical pain and financial hardship. 10. VESTED INTERESTS AND BIASED SOURCES - Any plastic surgeon you consult who regularly performs breast augmentation surgery has a vested interest in promoting them as safe. Reliant on the income they generate from such surgeries, they are inclined to ignore the research findings that threaten their revenue source, and instead believe the claims that implants are safe. They are likely to emphasize positive results and downplay negative ones. Even the best intentioned among them simply cannot serve as a reliable source of independent information about the health implications of implants. But don't take my word for all this: check out http://www.breastimplantinfo.org This site is operated by the National Research Center for Women & Families, a respected, independent, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to improving the health and safety of women, children and families.