Michelle Madrigal feels ‘empowered, confident’ a year after breast explant surgery
Michelle Madrigal is proud of her body now more than ever.
On Friday, December 11, the former actress took to Instagram to celebrate her first year since she had her breast implants removed. The 32-year-old mom and fitness coach shared a photo of her extracted silicone implants and revealed feeling “empowered and confident” like never before despite having “smaller breasts.”
“A year since removing those toxic bags in my body. Let me tell you… I have never felt so empowered and confident even with my smaller breasts. Clothes fit me better and I am able to move freely. My body feels healthier since my implant removal,” Michelle wrote.
“No judgments here... if it makes you happy, do it. But do your research and make sure that it is something you truly want in the long run,” she added.
Michelle kept her breast implants all under wraps until she announced that she wanted to have them explanted last year.
Like many women, she used to feel insecure about being small-breasted. "I had my implants done in 2007 or 2008, so it's been a while. I've had these babies for 12 to 13 years, so I was really young,” Michelle recalled in her YouTube vlog on December 4, 2019.
"One of the reasons why I got them was I was really insecure growing up, and my sister, she had big breasts like my mom. And in my family, I was the only one who didn't have boobs. I was never flat-chested but people would be like, 'Oh, how come you and your sister aren't the same?' Or some friends would come up to me and say, 'Oh your sister, she's got, like, big boobs.’"
That, in addition to the pressure to look sexy and attractive in front of the camera, has pushed Michelle to undergo breast augmentation surgery.
She continued, "And when I joined this talent search, I became an actor, everybody pretty much had big boobs. In the industry, if you wanted to pose for sexy magazines, and, at that time, that was the super 'in' thing to do."
I just want this out of my system. It doesn't serve me anymore.
"At that time, I just did it for vanity, and I really thought it could fix my insecurities growing up. But even then, even in my early twenties, I was still insecure even if I had big breasts already, I felt sexy and all that, but I was still insecure here and there. I was just not really content with my own body, you know."
Michelle decided to have her implants removed after experiencing constant chest pain, anxiety, joint pain, brain fog, depression, and hives, which were all symptoms of Breast Implant Illness. “I just want this out of my system. It doesn't serve me anymore,” Michelle remarked.
The actress went on to share advice to women who would like to go under the knife to have their breasts enlarged: "So I guess my advice to all the girls is to really think about it, and think long-term because that's something I didn't do for myself. I just got so caught up with looking good, boosting my confidence. I was just so caught up with that I didn't even think of my health because at that time, I wasn't really promoting health and wellness.”
"But when you get older, you're gonna do everything to live longer, to be healthy, and that's what I'm trying to do. I wanna be healthy when I'm 50, so I can still hang out with [my daughter] Anika and not be sick, and just live life without any foreign device in my system and just enjoy me,” she concluded.
Michelle underwent breast explant surgery on December 11 that year and expressed feeling lighter and happier "knowing that I am on the way to healing and recovery."
Photos from Michelle Madrigal on Instagram.