A mother whose hair loss, blurry vision and brain fog baffled doctors now believes her breast implants were to blame.
Christina Roulund, 35, has now had the ‘toxic’ implants removed, after first getting them put in to bolster her chest back in 2006.
She went from an A-cup to a D-cup because of the surgery – and had been happy with her body until she realised it was making her ill.
Doctors struggled to find a cause for her strange and unexplained symptoms, until Ms Roulund claims she was diagnosed with ‘breast implant illness’.
The fitness coach, from Palm City in Florida, claims her symptoms have disappeared since she had the implants removed in August.
Christina Roulund, 35, claims her breast implants caused her to suffer from brain fog, blurred vision, mysterious rashes and tiredness and pain – she said her symptoms have all improved since she had the implants removed in August this year
Ms Roulund is now sharing her story to warn other women about the dangers of breast implants after her own experience.
Her symptoms began to appear after she gave birth to her son in 2011, which she at first put down to the strain of being a new mother and ‘bored housewife’.
But when one of the lymph nodes in her armpit became swollen in 2014 she decided something must be wrong, because ‘lymph nodes don’t respond to nothing’.
After seeing various doctors, Ms Roulund claims she was diagnosed with ‘breast implant illness’ – when the body reacts badly to silicone implants.
‘Before getting implants I was a confident, energetic and happy person,’ Ms Roulund said.
‘But I found myself constantly comparing my looks and my body to other people. I didn’t hate my body, but I didn’t embrace it the way it was.’
Despite aiming for a C-cup, Ms Roulund said she ended up with D-cup breasts but didn’t suffer any complications and was happy with her new body.
‘I didn’t get any reactions immediately after I got my implants put in,’ she said.
‘It wasn’t until 2011 when I had my son that my fatigue and brain fog became debilitating at times and it never went away.
Ms Roulund said she was happy with her new breasts (pictured in April this year, before the implants were removed) but around five years after the surgery she began to suffer from symptoms which couldn’t be explained by doctors
Ms Roulund, a health and fitness coach, said she would get rashes for no apparent reason and also began to lose her hair but doctors’ tests did not show up that she was ill
Ms Roulund decided something was seriously wrong when she noticed a swollen lymph node in her armpit in 2014 because, she said, ‘Lymph nodes don’t respond to nothing, they respond to toxins, bacteria, viruses, cancer cells and so on’
‘When I started to notice symptoms, I just chalked it up to being a new mum and a bored housewife.
‘It started out with brain fog and fatigue to the point where I was always bored, unmotivated and lazy.
‘Then in November 2014 I had a lymph node in my right armpit which got tender and swollen.
‘This was the first real alarming indicator that something was going on inside of my body. Lymph nodes don’t respond to nothing, they respond to toxins, bacteria, viruses, cancer cells and so on.’
By January 2015, Ms Roulund was also suffering from anxiety, hair loss and blurry vision on top of her fatigue and brain fog.
She became seriously worried about her health but claims doctors’ tests returned no verdict of illness and they were unconcerned by the swollen lymph node.
Struggling on through the issues, Ms Roulund then developed hip pain and breathlessness in 2017.
‘The hardest part of all of this was going to the doctors and specialists, feeling like I was mentally and physically falling apart, with no real answers as to why,’ she said.
‘All of my lab reports were coming back as normal, so I literally thought I was dying. I felt hopeless, lost, afraid and uncertain about my future.’
When Ms Roulund watched a report about breast implant illness – which is not listed as an accepted medical condition by officials in the UK or US – on the local news, it highlighted the dangers of putting implants into the body.
This was something she had never considered before and immediately feared her breasts were the cause of her numerous health problems.
‘I knew I wanted to remove my implants the day I saw on the local news a segment about something called ‘breast implant illness’,’ said Ms Roulund.
After seeing a story on the news about the possible effects of breast implants Ms Roulund decided she wanted hers taken out, and had the surgery done in August this year (pictured recently) – she returned to an A cup but said she is happy with her body now
Ms Roulund (pictured after her surgery) said: ‘If I’d known that my breast implants could cause me so much physical and mental pain, I never would have done this’
‘I was completely and utterly flabbergasted that I had never put two and two together before and that the reason I was falling apart was because of my supposedly safe implants.
‘There I was, a health and fitness coach, doing everything right, eating nutritious food, exercising, removing toxins from my household cleaners and cosmetics, yet the toxins that I needed to remove were inside of me all along.
‘If I’d known that my breast implants could cause me so much physical and mental pain, I never would have done this.’
She had the implants removed on August 2, when she said she was fearful she would ‘die or end up in a mental institute’ because she had become so distressed about her health.
Ms Roulund (pictured recently with her fiance, John Dennis) said she is now happy with her body and is warning other women about the possible dangers of breast implants
Ms Roulund said: ‘If you’re ill with unexplainable symptoms and you have breast implants, please consider getting them removed.
‘Both saline and silicone implants have more than 40 different toxins in them.
‘Breast implants are two huge, foreign, toxic objects inside of your body, right above your heart and lungs.
‘From day one they send your immune system into overdrive because they’re foreign invaders.
‘If you say you truly care about your health, getting your implants removed is how you’ll get it back.
‘I will never stop sharing my story, knowing that I’ve talked over a dozen women out of getting implants and shown thousands more the answer they’ve been searching for as to why their health is falling apart.’