Would you change your breast size?

 

Breasts are indeed getting bigger. After 34B reigned as the most common bra size for nearly a decade, last year 36C emerged as the best-selling bra size in America, according to the market research firm NPD in Port Washington, N.Y. And an increasing number of women are getting fuller breasts via the operating room. Implant surgery is more popular than ever: 191,583 women nationwide had breast-augmentation surgery in 1999, up 51 percent from the previous year, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Just a decade ago, implants were under heavy fire.

Studies suggested a possible connection between silicone-filled implants and connective-tissue diseases and autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), citing inadequate evidence that silicone-filled implants were safe, banned them from the market in 1992, with a few exceptions, such as use in clinical trials. However, a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine found no connection be tween silicone implants and autoimmune or connective-tissue diseases, nor did another study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Still, the debate over implants continues. A more recent study published in The Journal of Rheumatology suggests there is a link between silicone breast implants that leak and fibromyalgia, a painful musculoskeletal rheumatism. And while researchers from the National Cancer Institute recently found no connection between silicone implants and most cancers (including breast cancer), they did find small increases in risks for lung and brain cancers.