TAMPA (BLOOM) – Many women are choosing to remove their breast implants due to health or cosmetic reasons. Hope Howard, a fitness and fashion influencer, sits down with Gayle Guyardo, host of the nationally syndicated health and wellness show, Bloom, to discuss her journey and recovery of removing her implants.
Howard uses social media to provide content on all things fashion, fitness, and family. Her social media handle is @hopeisabelhoward and her platform is home to over a million subscribers. She was suffering with breast implant illness for a while prior to having the explant procedure. Breast implant illnesses can cause auto-immune symptoms and, in rare cases, lymphoma.
In a post shared on Instagram, Howard says: “A lot of you guys have asked how I’ve been dealing with my new body after my explant surgery… I was left with the “real” me which was at times a hard pill to swallow.”
Her social media journey started out with having breast implants. She was slightly concerned with how the explant procedure would affect the way her followers would view her.
“Obviously what I do is very image-based,” Howard mentions.
Howard explains to Guyardo that her day to day life was initially hindered. She found it difficult to take care of her daughter at the time.
“As soon as I removed them, within days, my health started to drastically turn around,” Howard says.
She went through what is known as an “en bloc excision”. The doctors removed the implants, but also the scar tissue surrounding said implants. An en bloc allowed her to still have a more natural look.
“That’s still very important as a woman, I mean, we still want to feel feminine and enjoy our bodies, too,” Howard stresses.
Guyardo asks Howard about how she felt post-procedure. She explains that her health was what mattered the most in terms of feeling her best. Her internal health matters the most. Feeling healthy and looking healthy must go hand-in-hand.
“I have children, and I have a husband… at the end of the day, I want to feel healthy,” Howard tells Guyardo.
A few of the symptoms Howard experienced prior to having an explant procedure were: hair loss, severe back acne, body odor, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, joint pain, and muscle soreness.
“It just felt like no matter what I did, I couldn’t recover,” she emphasizes.
She actually had a blood work panel done, where she was told she had both an elevated white blood cell count and a positive anti DS-DNA reading. Those results told Howard that her immune system was attempting to fight something off.
Howard feels like she did everything right as far as living a healthy life. She works out five times a week, watches the foods she eats, and all of the things you’re supposed to do to take care of your body.
As far as recovery, Howard says she was not able to lift anything too heavy or pick up her daughter for six weeks. Her health skyrocketed post-procedure. All of the inflammation in her face was gone. At the end of the day, having the procedure was the best thing she could’ve ever done for her health.
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