I saw a young woman today in clinic who was considering breast augmentation.  She was recently married and considering when she and her husband might like to have children.  She wondered, “Will breast implants harm the development of a baby?”

This question is not an infrequent one.  Women are concerned about the possibility that their baby could be exposed to silicone during the pregnancy or afterwards during breast feeding.  In addition, there are several reports that have suggested a relationship between esophageal problems attributed to a scleroderma like syndrome, myalgias, neonatal lupus, perinatal mortality, and congenital anomalies in children born of mothers that have undergone cosmetic breast augmentation using implants.  Unfortunately, these reports are very limited by the number of patients involved and it is difficult to draw conclusions from them.   

Let me first begin by saying that women with implants do not have higher circulating silicone levels than women that do not.  Second, silicon levels are comparable in breast milk from women who have implants and those that do not.  Kjoller et al. posed a similar question about breast implants and reviewed four epidemiological studies to answer this question.  I’d like to summarize this report because it does a nice job of looking at the current state of this issue.  The conclusions from this review were derived from looking at the data surrounding literally thousands of children born to mothers who had undergone a breast augmentation in comparison to children whose mothers had either undergone a breast reduction, other surgical procedure, or selected randomly from a Medical Birth Registrar.  The numbers of children involved are the real strength of these studies and allow for adequate power to make some reasonable conclusions about how implants may affect the development of a baby.  

The bottom line of this review is that the current evidence does not suggest that there is an increased risk for connective tissue diseases, birth defects, esophageal problems, or perinatal mortality in infants born to mothers who have implants versus those that do not. 

Our websites www.beauty-surgeon.com and www.drmckane.com have additional information and before and after photographs of breast augmentation for review.  I invite you to schedule a consultation with me if you would like to learn more about breast augmentation or implants in pregnancy or lactation.  Please feel free to contact our office at (713) 661-5255 if you have any questions.

-Brice W. McKane, M.D.

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