Many women falsely believe that getting a breast reduction causes fibromyalgia, but actually, just the opposite is true. Studies have linked breast implant rupture, not breast reduction, to an increased risk for fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is a relatively newly identified condition in which a person experiences sleep disorders and constant, generalized or localized pain in the muscles, bones and joints. Fibromyalgia mostly affects women, and women tend to experience more severe symptoms than men. Though it was once considered an autoimmune disorder, studies show that it does not effect the autoimmune system at all. Some classify it as a psychosomatic disorder (meaning the person mentally causes physical symptoms that have no physical origin), but rheumatologists disagree. It is not well-understood, and there is no cure.

Women who have silicone gel breast implants which have ruptured and spread beyond the muscle and scar tissue capsule surrounding the implant have an elevated risk of acquiring fibromyalgia. Such women are nearly three times more likely to develop symptoms of fibromyalgia than women without breast implants or even women with ruptured silicone gel implants in which the silicone hasn’t spread beyond the capsule. Researchers admit that further study needs to be done, and studies have not distinguished among women who may have had fibromyalgia prior to getting breast implants. This study establishes a link between breast augmentation and fibromyalgia, not a cause and effect relationship.

It is possible that breast reduction surgery could cause the condition known as secondary fibromyalgia. This condition displays all the symptoms of fibromyalgia, but it has a specific cause. One of the causes of secondary fibromyalgia is surgery. In this way, breast reduction surgery could trigger fibromyalgia, but so would breast implant surgery.

Some women have actually tried breast reduction surgery to ease the pain of fibromyalgia. Anecdotally, removing breast weight does seem to ease upper body pain associated with fibromyalgia for some women, but breast reduction surgery is not recommended as a means of treating fibromyalgia. It is more likely that reducing the size and weight of large breasts relieves pain that a woman would experience regardless of whether she has fibromyalgia.

Even if there is no cause and effect relationship between breast augmentation and fibromyalgia, some women do report chronic, severe pain in their arms and chest after getting implants. Often, the pain is so severe that it requires the implants be removed. In this sense, breast reduction may be associated with chronic pain, but it is certainly not related to fibromyalgia.

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