Capsular contraction.

Hi sorry if this has been asked before but I wondered if someone can give me more info on it, I just wondered if there was any ways of preventing it and also when are you most likely to get it. I'm 7 days post op and full of flu today, I read somewhere capsular contraction has something to do with your immune system fighting off alien objects (implants), could I be more at risk with the flu? I worry about everything!!!! Xx

I don't think anyone really knows what causes CC unfortunately, obviously we know it's the scar tissue around the implant contracting, but don't know why.
I read that a particular bacteria or something, around the implant can cause it, so other factors like bumping your breast, or massage, or infection in your body, are all irrelevent and there's not much you can do to prevent it.

I think lots of us were poorly around the time we got our BAs and not many get CC so don't worry, in fact I'm sure I had a chest infection after mine and was told that it can't affect my implants. Hope you feel better soon x

Hi Hun,
my surgeon explained it to me by saying that when a foreign object is introduced in to the body be it an breast implant or a knee joint the body recognises it as not belonging there so it makes a capsule round it to protect the rest of the body from it. All of us with implants have this capsule around our implants but there are different levels, most of us are at level 1 which means we can't fell the capsule and it doesn't distort the implant but if this capsule thickens and becomes tighter around the implant It distorts the shape
of the breast feels like a cricket ball. It doesn't happen in the majority of implants and most of us stay at level 1. Capsular contracture can happen at any time from the early months after surgery and in some people it happens years after their surgery. Please let me stress that it only happens in a minority of people. I think it's one of those things we all worry about early after surgery but try and put it to the back of your mind and enjoy your new assets.

shelle222 wrote:Hi Hun,
my surgeon explained it to me by saying that when a foreign object is introduced in to the body be it an breast implant or a knee joint the body recognises it as not belonging there so it makes a capsule round it to protect the rest of the body from it. All of us with implants have this capsule around our implants but there are different levels, most of us are at level 1 which means we can't fell the capsule and it doesn't distort the implant but if this capsule thickens and becomes tighter around the implant It distorts the shape
of the breast feels like a cricket ball. It doesn't happen in the majority of implants and most of us stay at level 1. Capsular contracture can happen at any time from the early months after surgery and in some people it happens years after their surgery. Please let me stress that it only happens in a minority of people. I think it's one of those things we all worry about early after surgery but try and put it to the back of your mind and enjoy your new assets.

Totally agree, it usually starts about 3-4 months as this is when a capsule has formed, but as said it can happen at any time it just depends how your body deals with the implant. Having the flu should not affect your implants, but an infection in the breast can increase the chances of CC. I'd sit back and relax and see what happens, you can't really prevent it if you are going to get it. Massage is supposed to help, but I'd wait until you are instructed to do so. I tend to just lie on my front for a while every day so that my implant is squashed, a bit like a massage lol lazy massage

Laying on your front as an alternative to massage?!? Loooool! That sounds like my kind of massage. I'm just imagining laying on my front in bed and someone telling me to do some work. And i call out: 'no sorry I'm giving myself a massage! This is hard work. Get someone else to do it'

I've got CC but it came on years after the BA so I think it's just one of those things, apparently if you smoke you have a higher risk....I've given up now in the hope that when I have my corrective BA it won't happen again. It came on so gradually I didn't even realise I had it until I went to see a surgeon who knew immediately what it was.

Shelle has got it completely right. We all have a capsule around the implant, it's when the body goes into overdrive that the severity can change.

As has been said, things like smoking really don't help, however surgeons can't pinpoint the exact cause.