Myrl Jeffcoat myrlj@jps.net

MS. HOUSER: Good morning. My name is Christie Houser. I have no conflicts of interest. I'm a 47-year-old mother of 2 boys and a full-time first grade teacher's assistant. I got silicone implants for augmentation at age 25. I researched my particular implants and was told by every doctor that everything would be fine and that the implants would outlive me.

Everything was great for a while, but after five years, I started experiencing joint problems, flu-like symptoms, rashes, and a cough that wouldn't go away. The doctors told me that the symptoms could not be related to the implants. And I believed them and trusted them.

The implant makers will present four years of studies tomorrow. If I had been included in these studies, most of my problems would not have been seen. We must have real long-term studies to truly evaluate the safety of the product.

Silicone implants have been on the market for 40 years. Yet, the industry has never presented more than four years' worth of data. Why is that? What are they afraid of? I believe we need to ask the long, hard-term questions.

Eventually my health got so bad that I had an MRI and an ultrasound. They found that there was something behind my left breast, but they couldn't really see exactly what it was. The implant was covering it. So they couldn't really tell.

When they removed my implants ten years after augmentation, the outer coverings of both of my implants were gone. There was a golf ball?sized cyst behind my left breast, which they could not see with an MRI or ultrasound. And both implants were ruptured.

They removed the implants and as much silicone as they possibly could and sewed me up. After two months of the surgery, I noticed that my scars were not healing and they were tender. I went to the doctor, and he told me that it would take time to heal.

I went to another doctor. And he saw something that was trying to come out of the scar. In fact, it was silicone that was leaking out of my scars in places that were not healing.

I have two sons. They both have diseases that are unusual. My 16-year-old son has Hashimoto's thyroid disease, which is typically found in adult women over 30. My eight-year-old has something called urticaria pigmentosa, which is a cafe au lait spot that can blister and previously has put him in anaphylactic shock.

There is no evidence showing that my son's illnesses are through breast?feeding, but it does beg the question. How did they end up with these strange diagnoses?

There are too many unanswered questions to approve this product. The American people look to you to guide their health and their children's health. I am not against implants, but if we do not demand the research to determine that silicone implants are safe for long-term use, we have to answer a new generation of women and their children with serious, serious health problem.

Thank you so much for listening.