Plastic breasts aren't fantastic, says model Gemma
After Belfast model Gemma Garrett found out she was among thousands who had faulty breast implants, her advice now to women is to be happy with what nature provided.
Gemma Garrett is angry and it’s not difficult to understand why. Still healing eight months after surgery to remove ruptured PIP breast implants, the 30-year-old Belfast model has no idea if there is a lasting risk to her health.
It doesn’t help that Gemma now believes she was wrongly advised to have implants in the first place and that there were other less invasive medical options open to her.
And she claims that the surgeon she consulted and who performed the operation — and who now won’t return her calls — should have informed her that he was using the cheaper option of Poly Implant Prothese implants — the current cause of a huge global health scare.
But most of all she is angry at herself — for being too trusting of a medical professional and for not carrying out more thorough research before opting to follow his advice.
Determined to channel the strong emotion which has followed her horrific ordeal into something positive Gemma has launched a personal crusade to persuade young girls against having a breast enlargement.
She says: “I’ve learnt a very hard lesson.
“Fortunately I am healthy at the minute and I can only hope there are no lasting effects but no one can tell me for sure.
“I think big boobs are overrated and it horrifies me how many young girls at just 17 and 18 years old are making the decision, supported by parents, to have breast implants.
“In many cases their breasts haven’t even finished growing. I want to campaign to warn them that it is not as glamorous as they think and that they will have to find the money to go through surgery all over again after 10 years, something else which I wasn’t told.”
Gemma, a former Miss Great Britain had surgery in 2008, not because she wanted to be a larger cup size but because she was self conscious that one of her breasts was bigger than the other.
Working as a model at the time made her even more aware of the difference and she decided to seek the advice of a breast surgeon to see if she could have corrective surgery.
“I didn’t want larger boobs. I was a size 8-10 at the time and my breasts were a full C cup or even a D cup which I was happy with,” she says.
Gemma went online to research breast surgeons and in the end opted for a London consultant who had been recommended by model friends in the city.
He recommended breast implants to correct the size variance in her breasts although Gemma later discovered there were corrective surgery options open to her which he didn’t mention.
At £5,000, the cost of the surgery was more than double what many other places were charging but this only served to reassure Gemma that she was paying for the best.
She says: “I had just got my first big modeling pay cheque and even though I could have got it done a lot cheaper elsewhere I thought I was paying more because it was the best hospital and the best surgeon and that actually gave me confidence about it.”
Gemma was told her implants would be silicone but PIP was not mentioned.
It has since emerged that the controversial implants which originated in France are filled with industrial chemicals including those used as fuel additives or for the manufacture of industrial rubber tubing.
It was last spring when Gemma discovered one of her breasts had become lumpy and decided to visit her GP who advised that she contact her implant surgeon.