Myrl Jeffcoat myrlj@jps.net

MS. ANTOLICK: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Karen Antolick. And I live in Columbus, Mississippi. I have no conflicts of interest.

My desire for implants began at the age of 15. And then at the age of 22, I took my savings along with a small loan and had silicone breast implants placed.

I was told by my plastic surgeon that sometimes implants could hard and have to be replaced but that if I massaged my breasts as instructed, that this was most likely not going to happen. I was told that breast implants were a lifetime investment and safe. I also did not receive any literature outlining the potential risk.

I thought that my life could only improve with implants. And after my surgery, I felt implants were the best thing that had ever happened to me.

Within the first year, however, I began having serious medical problems. Over the years, I was in and out of doctors' offices with various symptoms: chronic fatigue; memory loss; migraines; chronic pain; hearing loss; burning in my chest; and numbness in my lips, hands, and feet. I did not know, nor did the doctors, that most of these symptoms are autoimmune symptoms and common with breast implant patients.

The pain and burning in my chest along with nipple discharge became so severe that I went to a plastic surgeon to have the implants removed. Once removed, my doctor told me that both implants were ruptured, capsulated, and had been leaking for many years.

During the surgery, she removed lymph nodes because they had become contaminated with silicone. This was very surprising to me because each year my mammogram showed that my implants were intact.

I am not unusual. I now know that FDA study found that most augmentation patients had at least one broken silicone implant within ten years. And silicone migrates outside of the breast capsule for 21 percent of women with implants.

I was young and naive when I received implants. I didn't have the foresight to see that my health is much more important than my breast size. Instead of providing me with self?esteem, like I thought, they provided me with a life of pain and dependency.

Now, 23 years later, I can no longer work as I used to. I had to move closer to my parents so that they could help care for my children. Probably the most difficult change I have had to come to terms with is not being able to care for and enjoy my children the way that a mother should.

Please make sure that young girls who are considering implants will not have to sacrifice their health for a certain body type like I did. Thank you for your time and consideration.