POSING for her wedding photos, Ionela Ardelean had never felt so confident.
The plunging neckline of her asymmetrical white gown showed off her 34DD implants to perfection — and she felt confident her new husband’s head would never be turned.
But it came at a cost.
Just a few years later, CCTV operator Ionela was left battling hair loss, a failing memory and heart palpitations so debilitating she feared she might die.
She says: “I was just 33 but felt like a frail 85-year-old. And the culprit was my boob job. It felt like my implants were trying to kill me.”
With an estimated 8,000 women going under the knife each year, boob jobs are the UK’s most frequently performed cosmetic surgery.
But not many would have heard about breast implant illness.
It is not currently recognised as an official medical condition, but some experts believe symptoms — which include brain fog, anxiety and joint pain — may be caused by an autoimmune or inflammatory reaction to the implants.
Previously a 34B, Ionela, 37, from Bristol, had always felt self-conscious about her smaller chest.
She met husband Vlatko, 40, a warehouse operator, on a coffee date in July 2015.
The pair quickly became an item but it was not long before she began to worry he would want to leave her for a woman with a bigger bust.
She says: “Vlatko always insisted I was beautiful and that he was happy with me as I was — and he’d never done anything to make me think he would stray.
“But I’d dealt with an unfaithful ex in the past, leaving me with some trust issues.
“So I got this idea in my head and couldn’t seem to shake it.
“Vlatko said if I needed to get implants to boost my own confidence, then he would support me.”
“I got a crushing headache, had reduced range of movement, zero energy and a strange burning in my chest.
In May 2016, Ionela paid £5,000 for a 105-minute procedure at a clinic in the Midlands.
At first, she was thrilled with her larger breasts
Apart from some discomfort when running, she had no significant side-effects.
But after the birth of their son in October 2019, everything changed. She says: “I was exhausted and overwhelmed. Then, when my son was a couple of months old, I went to a sauna and after ten minutes, I felt nauseous and faint.
“I got a crushing headache, had reduced range of movement, zero energy and a strange burning in my chest. I spent the night curled up, sobbing silently, so as not to wake up my husband and son.”
Things went more downhill from there, with Ionela developing severe memory loss and brain fog.
She would forget appointments, play-dates and social events and could not calculate the simplest of sums.
Then came the hair loss. A fistful would fall out with every wash.
She also suffered from a loss of feeling in her arms and fingers, a burning pain in her right foot and right wrist, severe headaches, heart palpitations, blurred vision, eye pain, IBS and constant exhaustion.
“I thought maybe it was postnatal depression, but that didn’t explain the physical symptoms,” she says.
“I went to the GP a few times, complaining of exhaustion and pain, but didn’t get any answers. I felt like I was dying and there was no reasonable explanation for any of it.
“Thankfully, Vlatko was hugely supportive and understanding.
“When he wasn’t working, he cared for our son and did as much as he could to try to ease the severe fatigue and low mood I had. He just wanted me to feel better.”
Near the end of 2021, Ionela suddenly noticed her implants had sagged significantly.
To anyone considering a boob job, I’d say big breasts don’t make you healthier, happier or smarter.
She says: “I started researching local clinics that could do an implant exchange and a breast lift and stumbled across a term I’d never heard before — breast implant illness.
“It was like a checklist for all the symptoms I’d been experiencing.
“I went back to my GP and showed him the long list, but they didn’t regard it as an actual condition.
“He agreed to give me a blood test and, of course, the results came back as normal.
“But I continued re- searching and told myself that if getting my implants removed would solve my problems, it was going to be the last time I would mess around with my body and health.”
After being quoted £10,000 for surgery to remove her implants in the UK, she decided to have the op in Lithuania in June 2022.
The £6,000 surgery took five hours and included a breast reduction and uplift.
She says: “As soon as I woke, I felt instantly better.
“The pain in my joints had simply disappeared and I had this vibrant energy rushing through me.
“I had no more brain fog, my memory loss was gone, and all the other symptoms I’d had also disappeared.”
Since then, Ionela has gone from strength to strength.
And she has a renewed appreciation for her smaller size 34B boobs.
She says: “I can’t understand how I could ever have been unhappy with what I had, or worried that Vlatko would leave me over my breast size.”
Her biggest fear now is that her son may also have been affected.
She says: “I worry the heavy toxins in my implants might have damaged his health when I was breast-feeding him.
“The majority of research online claims that it’s safe, but there are scientists who have identified abnormalities.
“Thankfully he has grown into a healthy and clever four-year-old, but I just don’t know what my breast milk might have carried into his body.
“To anyone considering a boob job, I’d say big breasts don’t make you healthier, happier or smarter.
“The implants stole £11,000 from my wallet and precious time and memories with my son.
“I’m just lucky they didn’t cost me my life, too.”
BREAST implant illness is a term for a wide array of symptoms affecting people with implants.
There is no formal test to diagnose it.
Common symptoms include joint and muscle pain, chronic fatigue, memory loss, anxiety, breathing problems, headaches, rashes, dry mouth and hair loss.
Symptoms can appear immediately after you get your implants, but could take years to develop.
Removal of implants is the most common form of treatment.
A Dutch study looked at 80 women who had silicone gel implants and were experiencing issues. In 69 per cent of cases, their symptoms improved after the implants were removed.
