Personal trainer told to keep breast implants to avoid ruining ‘Sports Illustrated body’

An Australian personal trainer was desperate to get her breast implants removed but says a doctor told her not to because of her figure.

Australian personal trainer Bec Donlan was desperate to have her breast implants removed due to a series of illnesses but says doctors were hesitant, fearing it would ruin her figure.

Donlan, 33, who is the founder of Sweat With Bec, decided to get implants at the age of 22 after comments about her concave chest wall — a condition she was born with — made her feel “self conscious”.

Despite “absolutely loving” her new look, the fitness influencer, who is based in New York, started to experience numerous health woes including “crazy stomach problems”, chronic fatigue and inflamed breasts.

Australian personal trainer Bec Donlan, 33, was born with a concave chest. Picture: Instagram/Bec Donlan

She decided to get breast implants at 22, after comments about her chest left her feeling self-conscious. Picture: Instagram/Bec Donlan

“I had heard of breast implant illness, but I thought it sounded like bulls – t — and to be honest, I didn’t care, because I really loved my boobs and didn’t want to give them up,” she told RealSelf.

But three years in the entrepreneur suddenly woke up with an “insane” amount of fluid around one of her implants.

“That breast was twice the size of the other. I went to the ER and got an MRI and an X-ray, but the doctors couldn’t tell me what was wrong and just gave me antibiotics,” she said.

A couple of years later she experienced the same thing again with doctors telling her it was “probably a bacterial infection”.

But not long after she started to experience a string of health woes from chronic fatigue to inflamed breasts. Picture: Instagram/Bec Donlan

But her health continued to worsen and she suffered chronic fatigue, hair loss and weight gain despite working out twice a day. She was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, an auto-immune disease that damages the thyroid, causing weight gain and fatigue.

In July last year, Donlan learned her implants had been recalled by the pharmaceutical company after the FDA discovered that they were putting women at severe risk of lymphoma.

But even then, some doctors still believed her illnesses were unrelated to the implants.

“I reached out to my original plastic surgeon, and he was like, ‘You’re fine, there’s nothing wrong with them, don’t take them out for no reason’,” she told the publication.

But after experiencing inflammation again, she visited one more doctor who advised her she needed to have them removed “ASAP”.

“I loved my implants, but I had to choose health over aesthetics,” she said.

After making the decision to have them removed Bec said some doctors refused to do the procedure because it would ‘ruin’ her figure. Picture: Instagram/Bec Donlan

Bec would soon discover her illnesses were in fact related to breast implant illness. Picture: Instagram/Bec Donlan

‘DOCTORS TOLD ME IT WOULDN’T LOOK GOOD’

After making the decision to part ways with her implants, the fitness influencer was faced with another hurdle — doctors refusing to remove her implants.

“Doctors told me they wouldn’t do it because it wouldn’t look good,” she told Real Self.

“One even said, ‘You’ve got a Sports Illustrated body and I’m going to leave you looking terrible, so I’m not doing it’.”

She found a board-certified plastic surgeon who would go ahead with the procedure — Dr Steven Ip who is based in California.

“Dr Ip was honest about the fact that it wasn’t going to look great, but we made a plan to take the implants out, let my body heal and my skin bounce back over three to four months and then look into fat transfer options,” Donlan said.

Bec said she noticed a dramatic change in her skin complexion and her eyes three hours after surgery. This photo was taken before. Picture: Instagram/Sweatwithbec

Bec after the procedure. Picture: Instagram/Sweatwithbec

Despite having originally been told breast implant illness (BII) is not “medically recognised”, Donlan soon discovered that the health issues she had suffered from for years were all listed as symptoms of the illness.

“It would be too irresponsible of me to get implants again,” she said.

“Seeing myself after the explant was … a lot. It’s not cute — it’s a very deflated-looking situation. But it was crazy how much better I felt right away.”

Donlan said she immediately started to see an improvement in her health and complexion.

“Literally three hours after surgery, the whites of my eyes were brighter than they had been in years because they weren’t carrying that toxic load anymore.”

“My skin tone is better, and friends who have seen me say I look younger.”

Donlan also shared her experience on social media to help others going through a similar journey.

“I thought that if I had seen someone like me going through this a year ago — someone who loves aesthetics and wasn’t a BII extremist — I would have looked into an explant sooner and paid more attention to everything that was happening to me,” she explained.

“If I hadn’t made this public, I probably wouldn’t have left my apartment. It’s a way of holding myself accountable and making myself not feel ashamed.”