Several women have come forward claiming that their breast implants were causing them symptoms including chronic pain, extreme fatigue, hair loss, headaches and sleep disturbance. After their breast implants were removed, they say, the symptoms disappeared.
This condition has been nicknamed 'Breast Implant Illness' - though it isn't an officially recognised illness at the moment (confusing, we know). Surgeons and representatives from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) have now called for further research into the possible links between breast implants and the symptoms.
A consultant plastic surgeon of BAAPS told the BBC 'Surgeons should be warning patients about breast implant illness. Patients need the most up-to-date information possible, with the caveat that breast implant illness is poorly understood. So it's going to be difficult to give absolute information.'
However, other professionals are saying that the condition doesn't actually exist.
The report on the possible existence of Breast Implant Illness has originally been carried out by the Victoria Derbyshire programme.
Women who say they suffered extreme side effects from their breast implants told the programme that they found support in online support groups (there are currently two on Facebook, including one based in the UK), the UK based Facebook group has over 2400 members.
'I remember getting severe pain in my stomach,' one woman told the Victoria Derbyshire programme. 'And the tiredness was like I had run a marathon and dug a million trenches and I hadn't done anything. Writing with a pen was too tiring.'
While in this instance, chronic pain has been reported as linked to a cosmetic procedure- we know that illnesses like Fibromyalgia, Endometriosis and ME are often misdiagnosed,dismissed as hysteria or normal period-related issues.
The symptoms that sufferers claimed to experience are debilitating. But historically: as multiple celebrities including Lena Dunham and Lady Gaga will attest, they have been disregarded. The Instagram account @cantgoout_imsick was created specifically to target and support women who have had their chronic pain and fatigue ignored by the medical profession and as it's 6000-strong following proves, there are a lot of them.
While we've yet to see whether research will prove Breast Implant Illness to be a real condition and side effect of undertaking this procedure; women deserve to know and have complete transparency on what potential side effects they might suffer before having a breast implant procedure.
Among calls for regulation of other procedures ; the alert of the possible existence of Breast Implant Illness is a reminder that cosmetic surgery is still an area that could benefit from increased research and regulation.