Breast Implant Illness: What Natalie Jill Discovered After 33 Years of Implants
September 28, 2026
What if the symptoms you’ve been blaming on menopause aren’t just menopause?
That question sits at the heart of my conversation with Natalie Jill, fat loss expert, sports nutritionist, and host of the Midlife Conversations podcast.
Natalie spent more than three decades with breast implants. Over those years, she had five sets of implants, experienced repeated capsular contracture and implant ruptures, and eventually developed a collection of health problems that she initially believed were simply part of perimenopause and aging.
Her experience ultimately led her to question whether breast implant illness, inflammation, and what she describes as her body’s overall “toxic load” could be contributing to what she was experiencing.
Her story is also an important reminder of something I tell women constantly:
When you know something feels wrong in your body, keep asking questions.
What Is Breast Implant Illness?
Breast implant illness, commonly abbreviated BII, is a term used by patients and clinicians to describe a collection of systemic symptoms reported by some people with breast implants.
For Natalie, however, breast implant illness wasn’t something she immediately believed applied to her.
In fact, she admits that she used to be skeptical.
She had lived with implants since she was 19 and had continued replacing them even after experiencing problems. Her first major issue came in her early 20s, when one silicone implant ruptured.
Even after that experience, she replaced the implants.
Over the next three decades, she went through five sets.
Looking back now, Natalie sees those repeated problems very differently.
The Symptoms She Thought Were Menopause
By her early 50s, Natalie was experiencing a cascade of health issues.
She felt puffy and inflamed. Her body wasn’t responding the way it once had. She experienced gut problems and learned that she had been living in a home with black mold.
But one of the symptoms that really got her attention was her blood sugar.
Natalie is a licensed master sports nutritionist and fat loss expert. She understood nutrition, exercise, and blood sugar management.
Yet she says she suddenly couldn’t control her glucose.
She recalls eating strawberries and seeing her glucose rise above 200 before later crashing dramatically. The swings became concerning enough that she spent two days in the hospital while doctors investigated possibilities including type 1 diabetes, LADA, and pancreatic problems.
At the same time, she was entering menopause.
So she wondered what so many women wonder:
Is this simply what happens to my body in menopause?
Eventually, she began questioning whether something else was contributing.
The Breast Implant Rupture That Changed Everything
The turning point came almost accidentally.
A friend was considering implants and asked to feel Natalie’s. When she did, she noticed something unusual.
Natalie had the area evaluated.
Her mammogram raised concerns about a crack in the implant. An ultrasound showed it as well. Eventually, an MRI confirmed that the implant was damaged.
Suddenly, Natalie had a decision to make.
Should she replace her implants for a sixth time?
Initially, that was exactly what she intended to do.
Then she met Scottsdale plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Brown.
Instead of automatically recommending another set of implants, Natalie says he asked a remarkably simple question:
After five sets of implants and repeated problems, why not take them out?
That question changed the trajectory of her health journey.
Why Natalie Chose Breast Implant Removal
Natalie had lived with implants for approximately 33 years.
They weren’t simply something she had.
They had become part of how she saw herself.
She had built a highly visible career in fitness, appeared on magazine covers, and spent decades with a very specific body shape.
Removing her implants was therefore more than a medical decision.
It was an identity shift.
Still, Natalie decided to have explant surgery with the understanding that she could reconsider implants later if she truly hated the result.
Then something happened that she didn’t expect.
She says she began feeling different almost immediately.
Over the following weeks, she noticed dramatic changes in how puffy and inflamed she felt. Her body began feeling more like her own again.
Natalie is careful not to claim that every health issue she experienced was caused by her implants. She had other potential contributors, including mold exposure, gut issues, autoimmune conditions, and dental problems.
But removing the implants became one piece of a much larger health puzzle.
Breast Implant Illness or “Toxic Load”?
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation is Natalie’s concept of toxic load.
Rather than searching for one single cause behind every symptom, she began looking at everything her body was dealing with simultaneously.
For her, that included breast implants, mold exposure, gut problems, old dental work, autoimmune conditions, hormonal changes, injuries, and other stressors.
Natalie describes it as a bucket.
Your body may be able to handle individual stressors for years. But as more and more are added to the bucket, eventually it may become harder to compensate.
That’s when seemingly unrelated symptoms may start appearing.
It’s also why Natalie pushes back against what she calls “one thing-itis”—our tendency to search for one single explanation for a complicated health problem.
Midlife health isn’t always that simple.
Breast Implants, Autoimmune Disease, and Natalie’s Experience
Natalie has also been diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions: celiac disease and Hashimoto’s.
She believes her earlier implant rupture may have played a role in triggering autoimmune problems, although she is very clear that she cannot prove that connection.
That’s an important distinction.
Her story is her personal experience, not proof that breast implants cause autoimmune disease in everyone who has them.
But it did lead her to ask more questions about what was happening throughout her body rather than treating each symptom as an isolated problem.
The Oral Health Connection She Almost Missed
Her investigation didn’t stop after breast implant removal.
Natalie had undergone root canals in her 20s and had extensive dental work throughout her life.
Years later, an oral microbiome test showed concerning bacterial markers. Her blood work also showed an elevated marker called MPO, or myeloperoxidase, which prompted further investigation.
A cone beam scan eventually revealed signs of infection around an old root canal.
Natalie decided to have the tooth removed.
She says her MPO subsequently returned to normal.
The experience completely changed the way she thinks about oral health.
We tend to talk about the gut microbiome constantly, but our mouths are part of that same system. We’re swallowing saliva throughout the day, which means oral health and gut health shouldn’t always be viewed as completely separate conversations.
For Natalie, this became another piece of her bigger health picture.
The Emotional Reality of Breast Implant Removal
There’s another part of breast implant removal that isn’t discussed nearly enough:
What happens emotionally afterward?
When Natalie first removed her surgical dressings, she says she struggled with what she saw.
She had gone from a DD cup to essentially no breast tissue. She had excess skin and significant surgical scars.
After 33 years with implants, she barely recognized that part of her body.
Instead of hiding it, Natalie eventually decided to lean into it.
She wore sports bras. She stopped trying to recreate her previous shape. She deliberately allowed herself to become comfortable with her new body.
And over time, her relationship with it changed.
She also says that in the two years following her explant, some natural breast volume returned—a phenomenon she had heard other women describe after explant surgery.
Most importantly, she felt dramatically better.
And that mattered more.
Her Health Journey Didn’t End With Explant Surgery
If there’s one lesson Natalie repeats throughout our conversation, it’s this:
It wasn’t just one thing.
Even after addressing implants, mold, gut health, and dental issues, she was still dealing with significant back problems.
Years earlier, Natalie had ruptured a disc at L5-S1 while working on a fitness set.
Eventually, she had essentially no disc remaining between L5 and S1.
For years she managed the problem conservatively because she didn’t want spinal fusion surgery.
But as the condition progressed, she developed significant back and hip pain.
Ultimately, Natalie chose an L5-S1 artificial disc replacement.
She describes the recovery as challenging, but says she is now pain-free and able to train again.
That experience also changed the way she thinks about exercise for women over 40.
Why Building Muscle After 40 Matters
Natalie’s fitness philosophy today looks very different from the fitness culture she came up in.
Twenty years ago, she says, women were largely encouraged to be skinny.
Building strong glutes wasn’t the priority it is today.
Looking back, Natalie says she had a strong core but relatively weak glutes—and she believes that imbalance mattered.
Today, her focus is functional strength.
Before worrying about complicated workout programs, she wants women to ask:
Can I walk comfortably?
Can I support my own body?
Can I move without pain?
Do I have core strength?
Do I have grip strength?
Can I get myself up if I fall?
Those questions become increasingly important as we age.
Natalie’s “Save Your Life” Exercises
Natalie highlights several simple movements she believes women should work toward as part of maintaining functional strength:
Planks: These challenge the arms, legs, and core simultaneously.
Hanging from a bar: This develops grip strength and upper-body capacity.
Pull-ups or chin-ups: Even working toward the ability to lift your own body develops strength that translates into real-world function.
Think beyond how exercise makes your body look.
Think about what your body needs to be able to do.
That is a completely different approach to fitness in midlife.
What If You Don’t Feel Well Enough to Exercise?
This was one of my favorite parts of our conversation.
Natalie says that if someone had told her to simply exercise harder three years ago, she wouldn’t have wanted to hear it.
She felt terrible.
She was inflamed, uncomfortable, injured, and unmotivated.
Her advice today is to investigate why you don’t feel well rather than assuming the answer is simply more discipline.
Once you begin feeling better, you can gradually rebuild.
Start with walking.
Work on pain-free movement.
Develop your core.
Improve your functional strength.
Then build muscle from there.
Could Breast Implant Illness Be Mistaken for Menopause?
There isn’t a simple answer—and that’s exactly the point.
Fatigue, inflammation, weight changes, brain fog, sleep problems, mood changes, and metabolic changes can have many possible causes.
Menopause can absolutely affect how we feel.
But being in menopause doesn’t mean every new symptom should automatically be attributed to menopause.
Natalie’s experience reinforces the importance of looking at the whole picture.
Hormones.
Gut health.
Nutrition.
Sleep.
Oral health.
Environmental exposures.
Medications.
Implants and other medical devices.
Movement.
Strength.
Stress.
And your individual medical history.
Midlife isn’t the time to stop asking questions.
It may be the most important time to start.
Becoming the Health Detective of Your Own Life
Natalie calls herself a “health detective,” and I love that description.
It doesn’t mean diagnosing yourself.
It means paying attention.
It means noticing when something doesn’t feel right.
It means asking better questions.
It means looking at patterns rather than dismissing every symptom as aging.
And it means advocating for yourself when your body is telling you something has changed.
Natalie’s story isn’t an argument that every woman should remove her breast implants, avoid root canals, or follow the exact path she followed.
It’s a reminder that your health story deserves investigation.
If you’re in your 40s, 50s, or 60s and suddenly don’t recognize your body anymore, don’t automatically assume you’re destined to feel terrible because you’re getting older.
Ask questions.
Look at the whole picture.
And keep investigating until you understand what your body is trying to tell you.
Because menopause may change the rules—but it doesn’t mean we stop advocating for ourselves.
🔗 Links and Resources:
Make Menopause Your Bitch Elite application: EstherBlum.com/MMYB