Vermeulen, Ruud C W, Scholte, Hans R · The Journal of rheumatology · 2003
This study looked at women with silicone breast implants to see if their symptoms matched those of ME/CFS patients. Researchers found that women whose implants had ruptured reported more severe fatigue, pain, and memory problems than those with intact implants. While the symptom patterns differed somewhat from typical ME/CFS, rupture of the implant was associated with worsening of fatigue and pain symptoms.
This study raises important questions about potential environmental or foreign-body triggers for fatigue syndromes that resemble ME/CFS. Understanding whether silicone rupture can produce ME/CFS-like symptom clusters may help identify subgroups of fatigue patients with distinct pathophysiological mechanisms and inform treatment approaches.
This study does not prove that silicone implants cause ME/CFS or that the fatigue in implant recipients is identical to ME/CFS. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation—women with implant ruptures may have had pre-existing factors. Additionally, the symptom patterns were noted to differ from CFS, suggesting these may be related but distinct conditions.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Vermeulen, Ruud C W & Scholte, Hans R (2003). Rupture of silicone gel breast implants and symptoms of pain and fatigue.. The Journal of rheumatology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14528527/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-vermeulen-2003-rupture-silicone,
author = {Vermeulen, Ruud C W and Scholte, Hans R},
title = {Rupture of silicone gel breast implants and symptoms of pain and fatigue.},
journal = {The Journal of rheumatology},
year = {2003},
note = {PubMed: 14528527},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/vermeulen-2003-rupture-silicone},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/vermeulen-2003-rupture-silicone
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