Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 09:33:07 -0700

URGENT

Dear Patty & Ilena,

Please remove my name so I can continue to enter this site without a block and then post.

I was reading all of my forwards and came across your letter. Since I am fairly new to the circuit and have been a silicone sister since 1986. I am very interested in what I had for so many years chosen to completely deny. A few years after my implantation a girlfriend of mine called to tell me that there were a bunch of women on a talk show telling about how silicone had ruined their lives and suggested that I watch it. I told her that this world had become to litigious, I was truly thankful for my implants and was in perfect health.

That was then and this is now, my poor body was so harmed by all of this and now have formally been diagnosed with auto-immune diseases. In light of all that, I decided to go to Nicole's home page for you and in turn take her tour. I went to her search engine and typed in auto-immune. I cried when I read the one and only result of the search. I made of copy of the page and pasted it here. Perhaps you have read it, I am ill at the thought that not only would this person promote that other women choose to have implants but that she also has the gall to promote nursing an innocent infant who has no choice. She also infers that the Laleche league backs her up. I am going to send a copy of this letter to the La leche league.

Here is the letter exactly as she has it posted:

Check with your own plastic surgeon, general practitioner or pediatrician. A recent report published in the November 1998 issue of PEDIATRICS said the following:

Children of Mothers with Breast Implants at No Higher Risk For Esophageal Disorders

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ Children of women with silicone breast implants have no increased risk of esophageal disorders or auto-immune disease, according to a new study released by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"This is an important finding for women and their families," said Paul Schnur, M.D., President of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS). "All mothers want the best for their babies. This study concludes that women with silicone breast implants can safely breast-feed their infants."

In 1994, a link between a scleroderma-like esophageal disease in children breast-fed by mothers with silicone breast implants was hypothesized. This Danish study examined that hypothesis, looking at a total of 939 children born between 1977 and 1992 to 1135 mothers who had had breast implants in Denmark (at least 84% were silicone gel-filled) for cosmetic reasons. This study group was compared to a control group of 3906 children born during that same time to 7071 women who had had breast reduction surgery.

Both of these groups of women were identified from the Danish National Registry of Patients (NRP), a data bank which keeps files on the public hospital visits of all Danish citizens. All Danish citizens have personal identification numbers which are unique to them. Each hospital admission record includes, among other things, that personal identification number of the patient child or adult and codes for surgical procedures performed during the admission. Consequently, each patient's reason for admission, date of admission and patient's name can be easily tracked.

The researchers compared the occurrence of esophageal malfunctions and disorders, connective tissue disease (CTD), other rheumatic conditions, and congenital malformations among the study group of children whose mothers had had breast implants to those of the control group of children whose mothers had had breast reduction surgery, as well as to those of the general national childhood population.

The study found essentially no risk of esophageal disorders or auto-immune disease among those children born to mothers with breast implants and concluded that silicone or breast implants are unrelated to either.

You can also find out information about breastfeeding generally at the website for La Leche League International.