Lauren Young, a stay-at-home mom from Texas, made a shocking discovery inside her breast implants after having them removed in 2021 to relieve the physical and mental health issues she believed were linked to them.
Shortly after realizing the horrifying nature of what happened to her implants, Young warned her followers about the potential risks associated with the cosmetic procedure.
“This may be TMI for some of you, but it could also save some of your lives,” she said.
“Don’t do it. It’s not worth it.”
Netizens who caught a glimpse of her discovery largely agreed in the comments section, with one writing, “Altering your body should only be an option for medical reasons.”
Lauren Young found her breast implants to be full of mold after having them removed
Image credits: Getty Images/Unsplash (not an actual photo)
In her video, Young held up her former implants, which she had stored in a ziplock bag, showing large black chunks floating inside both of them.
She called the floating matter mold, claiming it was already inside the saline pouches when they were removed from her body.
Young went on to place them back on her chest to highlight how close they had been to her heart.
Image credits: Lauren Young
She claimed she had developed a host of troubling symptoms, which prompted her to remove them.
“My skin was aging weirdly. I was nauseous and vomiting almost every single day. I had joint pain, headaches, my anxiety was through the roof, and even some depression, which I never had an issue with,” she said.
Young claimed her health issues virtually disappeared after the implants were removed, leading her to share a PSA with her followers that “saline doesn’t mean safe.”
According to research, Mold can develop inside implants if the seal is compromised during surgery
Image credits: Lauren Young
Although Young did not reveal whether she was able to identify the specific type of fungus found in her implants, experts have noted that certain fungal species are more commonly associated with breast implant infections.
In a 2022 paper on breast implant infections, Dr. Christopher Homsy and Dr. Natalie Kuhn of the Tufts University School of Medicine identified Candida and Aspergillus species as among the most frequently reported fungal causes in such cases.
Young’s symptoms, along with a range of other reported complications such as insomnia, hair loss, and slow wound healing, are grouped under the medically unrecognized umbrella term Breast Implant Illness (BII).
Notably, though BII lacks universal acceptance, several doctors, including Detroit-based plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn, acknowledge “it’s real.”
Image credits: Lauren Young
In a June 2021 Instagram reel, Youn shared that he began questioning his training, during which he was “told BII was hogwash,” after an increasing number of lawsuits by women over the side effects they faced following their procedures.
He claimed he now believed that “most women do just fine with implants, but definitely not all.”
Influencer Bunnie DeFord shared a video revealing that her breast implants had developed orange mold
DeFord, who has 2.5 million followers on Instagram, where she posts interviews with celebrities, personal vlogs, and more, had her implants removed in 2019 after 13 years of augmentation.
Image credits: Jonathan Borba/Unsplash (not an actual photo)
In footage shared on TikTok in 2022, she cited BII as the reason for getting her explant surgery.
“I started suffering so many symptoms that not one doctor could pinpoint,” she said.
“All symptoms went away except anxiety sometimes,” she added after getting her implants removed.
Image credits: Bunnie Xo
She claimed her explant was the “best decision” she ever made.
Like Young, she too preserved her implants in a ziplock bag, which she showcased in her video.
“They’ve just been sitting there. Look at that. That goes inside a human body. Look at the mold. No wonder women are having so many complications with these things,” she said about the contamination.
Image credits: Bunnie Xo
“Please make sure to talk to someone if you think your implants are causing Breast Implant Illness. We don’t have to suffer in our quest for perfection,” she wrote in a text over the video.
Breast implants were linked to skin cancer in an alarming Food and Drug Administration report
In a March 2023 report, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that it was aware of 19 cases of fatal squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, occurring in “the capsule around the breast implant and in scar tissue.”
Image credits: Webphotographeer/Getty Images (not an actual photo)
While believed to be “rare,” the development of SCC is something those who desire implants should be informed about, the FDA noted.
The warning followed a wave of young people on social media romanticizing the procedure.
Image credits: Sasun Bughdaryan/Unsplash (not an actual photo)
Alix Earle, an American social media personality who popularized “Get Ready With Me” videos, celebrated a one-year “boob-iversary” in 2023, while TikToker Kennedy Eurich celebrated her implant journey by taking her followers along for the ride.
Image credits: Maria Gmitro
The procedure continues to be popular, with the global breast implant market projected to expand from $2.8 billion in 2025 to $3.1 billion in 2026, according to Grand View Research.
“You save me 10k, thank you” a netizen said
