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  • Is It Safe to Get a Breast Augmentation With an Autoimmune Disease?
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Hi, I'm Dr. Michael Epstein, and I'm about to answer a question that was posted on RealSelf. The question reads as follows, "Is it safe to get breast augmentation with an autoimmune disease diagnosis?"

This particular patient was on immunosuppressant drugs as well, and so the concern is really one of two things. For the patient, their first concern is whether or not the implants pose additional risk to them by their flaring up their autoimmune disease or creating another autoimmune disease, because their system is already prone to this type of a problem. I can tell you with an extremely high degree of confidence that implants do not cause autoimmune diseases. These devices have been studied for many years and it has never been shown to create autoimmune diseases.

Putting that aside, if the patient's fears about that are taken care of, and they feel better about proceeding with the operation, the other main concern is whether or not the patient's going to have a problem with either healing or the potential for increased risk of infection. This is primarily because of the immunosuppressant drugs that many of these patients are on, and it is a concern. It is something that I would discuss with the patient that has one of these diseases and is on those medications. So it would behoove the patient to certainly talk with their primary care doctor that has them on these medications, get medical clearance. I would also want to make sure that they have no other additional medical problems that may complicate matters. And if all those check out okay, it might be a reasonable thing to proceed. Thank you.

Is It Safe to Get a Breast Augmentation With an Autoimmune Disease?

Dr. Michael Epstein answers a question from a RealSelf user regarding whether or not it's safe to have a breast augmentation with an autoimmune disease.