Two weeks after undergoing breast implant removal surgery, Andi Lew felt alive again.
For years, Lew had experienced a range of symptoms years after undergoing breast implant surgery, including chronic fatigue, joint pain, brain fog and anxiety. After advocating for her health, she was finally recommended breast implant removal, or “explant” surgery, in which both implants and the surrounding scar tissue were removed through a procedure known as an “en bloc” or total capsulectomy.
Lew said she immediately began feeling relief.
Once she began sharing her story, Lew said women flooded her inbox almost immediately with stories of their own — women who felt dismissed by doctors, struggled to afford treatment and were desperate to feel well again after receiving breast implants.
After fighting for her own health while suffering from breast implant illness, Lew knew she could not allow other women to continue struggling in silence.
“I just felt compelled to pay it forward,” Lew said. “There was a lot of shame around this international narrative of: this is cosmetic surgery. You did this to yourself. Why should we care?”
Breast implant illness is a term used to describe a range of symptoms, including fatigue, joint pain and brain fog, that some women attribute to their breast implants.
Lew said women experiencing breast implant complications are often dismissed or shamed, while access to implant removal procedures that include the surrounding scar tissue remains limited and costly.
Although some patients report symptoms they attribute to their breast implants, breast implant illness is not currently recognized as a distinct medical diagnosis by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery officially acknowledged Breast Implant Illness as a legitimate condition in August 2025.
Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), meanwhile, is a recognized type of lymphoma associated with breast implants.
As of June 30, 2024, the FDA had received reports of 1,380 unique BIA-ALCL cases worldwide. Lew questions whether the cancer is underreported and argues that removing and testing the surrounding tissue could provide more evidence. She also points to the high cost of surgery and the shortage of experienced surgeons as barriers preventing women from receiving the care they need.
“Millions of women are dying to be well,” Lew said. “I have this overwhelming sense of responsibility all the time.”
In an effort to help women advocate for their health and make informed decisions about breast implants, Lew wrote Treasured Chest, a book that explores the stigma surrounding breast implant complications, advocates for women’s access to information and informed medical choices, and challenges societal beauty standards in favor of health, self-acceptance and bodily autonomy.
“The main thing is that we need to provide them with the information, the awareness, the choices, because most of the time that decision’s made in a hurry, and they just don’t even have the choice,” Lew said.
Beyond raising awareness about implant complications, Lew wants women to have more information and choices about their bodies. She questions the pressure to pursue cosmetic procedures and argues that women should be able to make informed decisions about reconstruction after mastectomies.
Through Treasured Chest, Lew hopes to empower women to prioritize their health, reclaim ownership of their bodies and recognize that their worth extends far beyond their appearance.
“Coming to peace with our God-given body exactly the way it is is probably one of the most rewarding and empowering journeys any woman could ever be on,” Lew said. “What’s behind the chest is our hearts, and that’s what’s most beautiful about us.”
Below is an excerpt of Treasured Chest, available both on Lew’s website and on Audible.
Credit: Courtesy of Andi LewI was so nervous that we might find something sinister in or after my surgery that I asked my surgeon prior to the surgery. What would happen if we had found squamous cell carcinoma, which is the new type of cancer in the tissue. He replied, “Then we will deal with it!” And you know what? Everything is regenerative, and everything is reversible and people do have miracles every day.
Oh, I kept this close to my heart and chest and remembered that with the work that I do in wellness that it wasn’t a prognosis or I wouldn’t allow it to be my label.
So often when people are given a prognosis, they live it out until that very day, as if it were a death sentence, telling them that they have ‘X’ amount of time to live. I would not be that person even if we did find something. I knew I would do everything in my power to create homeostasis again. And besides, miracles happen every day.
With all this in mind, and the weight literally off my chest, I finally felt “free to be with me”. I am putting this in inverted commas, because I literally feel like I’m coining this term. I knew I always wanted to be this woman that I am now who is brave and vulnerable and strong and powerful, but soft and family and most of all I am free.
This is a story about the tragedy of that event that transcended into me and having to heal all the traumatic events in my life. It’s just that this one was the crescendo experience that was like a light bulb literally smacking me awake with light and love.
Get yourself out of that victimhood and become a victor!
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