Candice was probably a victim of ASIA syndrome.
Each year, nearly 70,000 breast implants are placed in France. Whether for aesthetic reasons, as part of breast reconstruction or a congenital malformation, prostheses relieve complexity and change the lives of many women. For others, they are more synonymous with hell. This is particularly the case of Candice who today wishes to share her story with Journal des Femmes. “I’ve always had small breasts, but I’ve never been self-conscious about it. However, 4 years ago, I “took the plunge” and had a breast augmentation under the influence of my boyfriend at the time.“, remembers the young woman, now 35 years old.
At first, Candice is happy with her new breasts, everything is going well. Two years later, things are getting complicated. “I started to have edema in my right ankle, which prompted me to consult specialists (angiologists, rheumatologists, etc.) who told me that there was nothing and that it was was probably linked to traffic problems“. A few months later, there was a “snowball” effect. The young woman had an allergic reaction on her face: acne rosacea which was first treated with Soolantra® – an anti-inflammatory. – then unbearable tingling and burning sensations came.I don’t know if my face didn’t/no longer tolerated the treatment but I didn’t know what to put on my face to relieve myself. My dermatologist no longer knew what to do to help me,” she tells us. She then suffered from acid reflux which led to a gastroscopy. Examination reveals minimal gastritis, but nothing alarming. “I have to take omeprazole (an antacid, editor’s note) and my body absolutely cannot tolerate it: I have very significant edema in my legs, lower abdomen and pubis. It’s like my body can’t tolerate anything anymore and it’s getting worse.“.
“I lost 6 kilos in 3 months, I was tired all the time, I no longer recognized myself”
At the beginning of 2024, almost 4 years after the operation, a whole bunch of symptoms came and went: intense headaches, a flu-like illness with joint and muscle pain, very dry eyes, hypersensitivity to light, loss of sensitivity in the fingers, tingling throughout the body, dental problems, night sweats, heart palpitations, intestinal problems, a persistently bloated stomach, cognitive problems with major problems concentrating and moments of disconnection, sleep problems, very dry skin, loss of hair, desire and appetite. “I lost 6 kilos in the space of 3 months, I was tired all the time, I no longer recognized myself and I couldn’t take it anymore especially since I had a super healthy life“. Candice goes through blood tests and exams, but nothing comes of it.
“For me, everything became obvious”
One day, the young woman noticed red patches around her chest as well as shooting pain in her breasts. “It throbbed and stinged me very often. For me, everything became obvious: I made the connection with the prostheses and I contacted my surgeon to do tests. An MRI showed a possible rupture in the prostheses. To check it, you had to open“, she confides. Candice decides to have the prostheses removed and the surgeon ultimately does not notice any rupture. At the same time, she joins a Facebook group of women who present the same symptoms and several mention the ASIA syndrome (for Autoimmune /Autoinflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants)…
“I paid a lot to get poisoned”
This syndrome would be linked to a reaction of the body to these foreign bodies (prostheses themselves or constituents). A reaction that would occur with an average time interval of 4 years between implantation and the start of symptoms, reports one of the only studies on the subject. In fact, it’s as if the body was fighting daily: it becomes exhausted and can no longer support much, hence all these disorders/allergic reactions and depending on the organism and time, this can go as far as triggering inflammatory reactions. and autoimmune, detected in blood tests. “This has not been my case so we cannot say 100% that I have ASIA syndrome but as an internist who deals with this syndrome told me, it is very likely that my concerns are linked to prostheses. In my case what was clear was that my body couldn’t take it anymore and it made me understand it (as with other women)“, she describes.
The diagnosis is not easy to make: we often put it down to psychology, burn-out, age… “My treating doctor did not go in this direction and always supported me, which is why he had me do a lot of tests (very many blood tests) and sent me to specialists (cardiologist, neurologist, rheumatologist, angiologist, endocrinologist, allergist, internist, etc.) so as not to miss anything. People around me did not understand and will never understand, I believe. I would have liked these people to live a day in my body, this body that I knew by heart but which I no longer recognized, which was completely out of order.“
Since removing the prostheses 2 and a half months ago, Candice has seen small improvements in her health. Her stomach immediately deflated, she sleeps better. But the road to total recovery is still long. “I’m angry because if I had known that these implants could make me sick, I would never have had the operation. I would love to go back. It had such an impact on my private and professional life. I felt so bad on every level… In fact, I paid a lot to get poisoned“Today, she has returned to work at 50% and wanted to testify so that future women can undergo surgery with full knowledge of the facts.”This intervention is far from risk-free. Before doing the breast augmentation, the surgeon told me that the implants were removed very easily… Today I have to do 3 physiotherapy sessions per week to try to get my chest back, I had big adhesions after having had my prosthetics removed. Everything was too trivialized, there was a big lack of transparency. I didn’t think cosmetic surgery could hurt so much…“