A woman’s whose breast implants left her suffering a host of health problems including hair loss, diarrhoea and adult acne has revealed how having them removed has completely healed her.
Fashion and lifestyle blogger Karissa Pukas, 27, who lives between Australia and Canada, had breast implant surgery in 2014.
After the procedure, she was left struggling for months with food intolerance, foggy memory and had trouble carrying out conversations.
Ms Pukas told the Thinkergirls that she sought to have them removed after realising she suffered from Breast Implant Illness.
‘I have never felt more comfortable and in tune body in the past few months since my explant. I am so grateful this is the outcome of such a horrendous experience.
‘I feel at home in my body.’
Fashion and lifestyle blogger Karissa Pukas, who lives between Australia and Canada, had breast implant surgery in 2014
Ms Pukas said once she realised she suffered from Breast Implant Illness she sought help to have them removed
It took Ms Pukas several years after implant surgery for her to properly realise that her health issues were related to her implants.
In the first year following her augmentation, she experienced inexplicable feelings of depression.
This was followed by extreme body odour which she described as ‘a metallic, acidic, stink’ that couldn’t be eradicated through washing or deodorant.
It took Ms Pukas several years after implant surgery for her to realise her health issues were related to her implants
‘I joined a lot of different support groups of different women that had experienced the same thing and that’s what tipped me over the edge,’ Ms Pukas said.
She then started to experience chronic night sweats to the point where she needed to get up during the night to put a towel down on top of the bed because she was soaking wet and shivering.
Soon after, Ms Pukas began having multiple periods a month, heart palpitations and was waking up every night with severe hip pain.
All the while she was constantly being told by professionals how she was ‘doing the right thing’ and that her tests were normal.
She said that although she followed an extremely healthy lifestyle where she regularly exercised and followed a strict vegetarian diet, her body was in constant pain and she developed adult acne
Ms Pukas revealed she later learnt that when you have a breast augmentation your body has an autoimmune reaction to the foreign object and tries to protect itself
Ms Pukas said she only became aware by chance that her implants were to blame after she uploaded a video about gut health to YouTube in April 2017.
Comments left by followers asked whether she had considered Breast Implant Illness as the cause of her health problems.
‘I joined a lot of different support groups of different women that had experienced the same thing and that’s what tipped me over the edge,’ Ms Pukas said on the podcast.
‘[I thought] it cannot be a coincidence if this many women have literally the exact same symptoms as me that didn’t have these symptoms before implants and don’t have a problem after they remove the object.’
Ms Pukas said having experienced such a radical shift in her health prompted her to speak out in a bid to help others who may be suffering
Ms Pukas first spoke out about her breast implants making her sick on YouTube, telling viewers even though she knew there was something wrong, no one believed her
This prompted her to seek out a surgeon who could remove her implants and because the syndrome wasn’t widely recognised in Canada she travelled to the US to have the procedure performed.
‘It’s not as easy as slicing your body open and taking the implant out, there’s also a lot of scar tissue that has to be removed,’ Ms Pukas said.
The changes to her health following explant surgery were ‘unbelievable’.
‘Weeks past and I kept feeling so much better and there was a complete reversal of my symptoms,’ she said.
Ms Pukas said having experienced such a radical shift in her health prompted her to speak out in a bid to help others who may be suffering.
‘People need to have this information and at the end of the day that is my only objective for doing any type of press or talking about this in any way,’ she said.
‘My whole reason for doing this is I just want to save anybody pain, and frustration and time and health and money.
‘This is awful and I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone.’
The 27-year-old also touched on how her decision to get implants as a 22-year-old was one largely fuelled by feeling inadequate about her body
‘I have never felt more comfortable and in tune with my body in the past few months since explant,’ Ms Pukas said
Although Ms Pukas said her health has turned around in miraculous ways following the explant, she is still working though detoxing her body.
This includes restoring her gut health and addressing other hormonal issues, a process she estimates will take between six months and a year.
‘In day-to-day life with the majority of my symptoms [gone], it [life] has been absolutely unbelievable.
The 27-year-old also touched on how her decision to get implants as a 22-year-old was one largely fuelled by feeling inadequate about her body.
A perspective she said has been altered by being more mature.
‘If I had the maturity and the mentality that I do now at 22, there’s no way I would have bothered getting implants. It’s just laughable to think I spent my time and money doing that.
‘It almost hurts to think that I wasted so much of my life with this s***.’