IMPLANT regret
Broadcaster speaks out about having removal surgery
The bubbly Marissa “Lala” Gonzalez has a lot to say on “Lulu & Lala,” the show she and her identical twin, the equally effervescent Marianella “Lulu” Gonzalez, broadcast daily on New York’s 103.5 KTU and the iHeart radio app. As a radio personality and blogger, she’s interviewed celebrities such as Selena Gomez and Leonardo DiCaprio, shared what it’s like to compete on “The Amazing Race” and explored diversity on reality shows.
But anyone who follows her on the air, YouTube or online knows that lately, she’s been animated by a topic that’s especially close to her heart — in more ways than one. In mid-December 2022, Gonzalez had surgery to remove breast implants after experiencing health problems including a neck rash, itchy eyes and migraines.
A Bergen resident along with her sister, she has become a passionate advocate for knowing the longterm consequences of opting for implants. “Since I’ve posted about this, so many men and women have been reaching out to me with questions,” she says. To help young women as she says she was helped when she was looking for information,
she shares her story with us here.
When did you get breast implants, and what motivated you?
I got them around April 2019, when I was 34. I didn’t have an excuse; I wasn’t flat-chested. I just thought I wanted to have more cleavage and be a little sexier. I always wanted to have fuller boobs. In my 20s, I wanted to not have to wear padding. I had saved up the money, thought I needed it, and went for it. Now I’m thinking, “Why?”
You and your sister do so much together, but not this. Did she feel differently?
This was one conversation my sister and I were not agreeing on. We do everything together. We’re the type who like being twins, so she wasn’t happy that I was going to get them. She didn’t go with me to my consultation and refused to be a part of that. She didn’t think I needed them, and thought we wouldn’t be twins anymore.
When did you first start to notice problems, and what were they?
Maybe three months after I got the implants, I noticed that the right one had fallen out of its pocket (created below the breast tissue to hold the implant in the right position), and they were uneven. Also, the left one was hard. You massage them, and after a month they should feel like natural boobs, but they didn’t for me. I went to the doctor and said “Something’s up, it’s lopsided.” But he was brushing me off, and that alone was an issue.
So I started searching for another doctor. This doctor suggested I go bigger, because maybe my pocket was bigger than the implant. I didn’t want to go that big — my goal was a small C, and I ended up with a double D. Within a year, I had two surgeries, and then there was COVID. I started getting a rash on my neck, my eyes were itchy and my skin was red because I had eczema. I wondered if it was my diet, or my body was changing with age. I also started using organic makeup. My dermatologist gave me creams and pills, but none of it was working. Then I started getting migraines, and I thought my head would explode. I got heart palpitations and tried to ignore them.
I was frustrated; nothing worked. Insecurity started to pop in, and I went from wanting to be sexy to wearing oversized jackets and keeping to myself. I couldn’t go to a chiropractor or wear a bra because it hurt. They looked hard, too. I was embarrassed for anyone to see them, including my boyfriend.
How did you decide to get explant (removal) surgery?
I had seen a video of a friend who’d gone through the process of removal, and I started researching. My cousin was doing same thing — she’d had them for nine years, and was worse off than I was. We exchanged research and stories, and said “Let’s do this together.” She had seen Dr. David Rankin (chief of plastic surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida) on a Facebook group page about explanting, and she decided this is the guy. He stopped putting implants in women about four or five years ago, when he started noticing the damage it was doing to women. Now he specializes in explanting. His assistant, Dee Hicks — Mama Bear — has done so much for the explant community. She played a hand in getting the FDA to require putting a black box warning on the implants.
Dr. Rankin consults on Zoom, but I wanted to see him in person. He said my implants were encapsulated (when scar tissue forms tight capsules around them), and they wouldn’t get better. He told me that I needed corrective surgery.
Was the decision to have another surgery a tough one to make?
It’s not an easy decision. I was scared. I never had kids, and I wanted to know that when I did, I’d be able to breastfeed them. And what would it look like? Would I have loose skin? Dee was nice enough to talk sense into me, and tell me that it was not getting better, and it could get worse. It’s human nature to care what you’ll look like, but then you think about your health, which money can’t buy. It’s crappy to feel sick. I would rather be healthy with a scar than to not have one and feel sick all the time.
What was post-surgery like?
You leave the hospital that same day with no complications. My surgery was at 6 a.m., and by 2 p.m., I felt like I could’ve taken a walk on the beach, like I’d gotten a second wind. I could finally take a deep breath and know everything would be fine. I had my body back.
They do put drains on you and a huge sticker band-aid; that was more uncomfortable, annoying and itchy. The drains are in a for a week and a half. You have to sleep sitting up the first three weeks, and it takes a toll on your back, which is hard in recovery.
They say it takes 6-9 months to recover, depending on your insides. They had to scrub out one of my breasts because it was so encapsulated. It’s hard for a doctor to take the whole capsule out, but you need to, because the capsule contains silicone from the implant.
Today, I’m feeling great. I’m putting Vitamin E oil on the scars, and my boobs are healing perfectly. I’ve just been cleared to do arm exercises, I can go back to the gym, and I can buy bikinis and dresses.
What advice would you give women who are thinking about getting breast implants?
I’ve been reading that explanting is a trend, and it’s not. It will not go away. People are taking implants out because they have health issues. It bothers me when I see that. Also, young women out there considering getting implants, please do your research about long-term consequences and how it’ll affect your health and those who love you, too. My mom saw what I went through. When I suffer, the family suffers.
And remember: healthy is sexy. You may think that implants are sexy, but there’s nothing sexier than being healthy.
Quick facts about breast implant removal
According to a 2022 report published by the National Institute of Health:
Breast augmentation remains one of most popular procedures in the field of plastic surgery.
A growing number of women, though, have been searching social media to find information about and share their experiences with a group of symptoms referred to as “breast implant illness.”
In recent years, the number of breast implant removals has increased, as the safety of silicone-based implants has been questioned by academics and the public. Analysis of yearly cases between 2006 and 2019 shows that the incidence of breast implant removal increased by more than 30 percent during that period.