In March 2003, Swedish
physicians Koot, Peeters, Granath, Grobee and Nyren published a prospective
study in the renowned British Medical Journal under the title: "Total and
cause specific mortality among Swedish women with cosmetic breast implants"
They investigated 3000 cases of female patients with breast implants and
discovered that 15 women among this group committed suicide. On
socio-epidemiologic terms only 5,2 cases of suicide could be expected within
that group.
The German News Agency "dpa" picked up and spread this information; it was
the source of another article published in the Bonn "Generalanzeiger" titled:
"Women are at greater risk of suicide after breast augmentation." Also
quoted are excerpts from an interview with one of the authors of the study,
Dr. Nyren, from the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in which
he says that women with breast implants lead a "rather excessive" life.
Though people who, instead of reading the newspaper, take a look at the
scientific study itself, might draw different conclusions. The authors write
that women of the cohort had a greater tendency to psychopathology, there
was an over-average percentage of smokers and as a result a higher frequency
of lung cancer than among women of the average swedish population without
breast implants. Everybody familiar with lung cancer knows that this disease
rapidly terminates the patient's life, accompanied by severe breathing
disorders and serious pain.
The study does not analyse this question any further but at least one
question remains unanswered: will a woman not rather commit suicide because
of unbearable breathing disorders and severe pain as a result of lung cancer
than because of minor problems caused by breast implants?
If breast implants are linked
with an increased suicide rate, then this is only half the truth. And the
truth, as is generally known, consists of two halves …
