Liz Lugo, 31, is a Miami-based senior executive director and cohost of the Becoming Badass podcast. She recently made the decision to remove the breast implants she loved and get a fat transfer instead. This is her story, told to Beth Shapouri, edited for length and clarity.
I got breast implants in 2008, after moving from Fort Myers to Miami, where so many women had them and everyone looked so gorgeous. I gave in to that peer pressure and got a breast augmentation that took me from a B cup to a DD. I loved my breasts after. I felt like they were part of me, and I couldn’t imagine ever not wanting implants.
I first heard about explant surgery six years ago, when a friend of mine, Jessica, was researching it, to deal with some health problems she attributed to breast implant illness. I remember thinking, That sounds crazy. I kind of brushed it off and didn’t take it seriously. Even as a few more women I knew went for explant surgery over the years, I just kept rolling my eyes. I didn’t believe BII was real. I thought, All these people are just falling into this fad.
Things began to shift for me after December 2018, when I went for what I thought was a routine 10-year implant replacement, to swap my old saline inserts for silicone ones. About a month after, I started feeling pain on my left side. It got worse fast—by mid-February 2019, my left breast was hard and looked like a tennis ball that was squared off on top, due to capsular contraction. It was so bad, you could see it in pictures. I knew I had to do something.
I went back to the same plastic surgeon in March 2019, to have the implants swapped out again, and that seemed to help a bit at first. The left side was still bothering me but not as much as the first time around, so I thought maybe it would get better with time. Instead, things got worse. I started getting shooting pains in my arm and eczema breakouts on my hands. In June of that year, I started getting acne, which I had never really had before, and my hands began going numb. By November, I was a mess emotionally—I would cry over every little thing and I started having panic attacks. I used to have a good memory, but now I was forgetting words when I was talking. I could see the image of what I was trying to say, but I couldn’t think of the word itself.
My breast explant surgery experience
I didn’t know what was wrong, but I wanted answers. I went to a naturopathic doctor who immediately thought my implants might be to blame after I told him my story. He did some blood work and found my mercury levels to be almost three times normal. That was weird—I hadn’t been eating more fish than usual. [Note: metal toxicity is a common symptom that women with breast implant illness report.]
I reached out to my friend Jessica and told her about what I was going through, and she added me to a popular Facebook group [for BII support]. I was experiencing about 70% of the things other women there were—memory loss; a foggy brain; social anxiety; and all the physical symptoms as well, like eczema. That was it—I decided I needed an explant.
There were only two doctors near me that offered the surgery. The first one I reached out to was booked for two years, so I realized a lot of women were doing this. The second was Dr. Joshua Lampert [a board-certified plastic surgeon in Aventura, Florida], who could get me in and do an explant, with fat grafting from my stomach, to help plump the breast afterward. I was relieved to know fat transfer was an option. I wouldn’t look like I had implants afterward, but that was okay—it just helped me feel better about the surgery. And I had to actually gain weight for it, which meant I was a champion at eating extra fries.
I just had the surgery in March, and it was intense. The skin on my left breast had thinned a lot from having three sets of implants, so it was tricky. It took 12 hours!
[According to Dr. Lampert, “Multiple prior surgeries usually means more deep scar tissue, which makes surgery more difficult. Unlike many other surgeries I do, explant surgery requires a lot of dynamic problem-solving in the operating room. The breast changes a lot after implants, and even with significant experience, you can never fully predict how the breast will look after explant surgery. This means that I have to fall back on my breast reconstructive surgery background, with each and every case, in order to make the proper adjustments.”]
Recovery was a little tough. The temporary drains I was left with were very uncomfortable. And unlike with my last surgeries, I was also sore from the fat removal. But it was worth it. It’s only been a month, and things have already improved so much. I feel so much better. I don’t have eczema anymore; my acne is clearing up; I have no foggy brain whatsoever; and my anxiety is going away.
I’m also really happy with how they look. Dr. Lampert did a great job, especially considering how thin my skin was on the left. My breasts are obviously smaller—they’re a B cup—and they look different, but they still look like nice, full breasts. And I still have cleavage!
Since the surgery, I’ve been trying to get the word out, to help other women like me. I’m really active on Instagram, and I’ve been posting about my journey there. People ask me so many questions about it. When I first heard someone say “explant,” I thought I was just gonna have two pieces of saggy skin left. Finding out fat grafting was an option made me feel so much better, so I think there needs to be more awareness. Women shouldn’t suffer because they’re afraid of what having their implants out will do to [their self-esteem]—they have options. I’m so glad I found out about this surgery. It feels like the best decision I ever made.
