Former S Club 7 star Hannah Spearritt has said she suffered hair loss and was left struggling to walk after undergoing surgery to enhance her breasts.
The singer and actress said she wants to warn people about the cosmetic procedure because of the negative health effects she felt following her operation before having the implants removed several years later.
Spearritt, 37, told The Mail on Sunday that she had a breast augmentation in August 2013, but later began to experience a number of health issues.
She said: “Within six months my hair started to fall out in clumps.
“Then I started sleeping more and more – eventually 22 hours a day. I couldn’t move from bed because my muscles were aching. I lost balance, I was always freezing cold and my brain fog meant I couldn’t remember anything.”
She said she went to see a private doctor the following summer, adding: “He said I was anxious and depressed, and prescribed a maximum dose of Prozac.”
Ahead of the S Club 7 reunion tour in 2015, Spearritt said she was also prescribed a maximum dose of an anti-anxiety and epilepsy drug, but that it only masked her symptoms enough to get through the performances.
Spearritt said “doctors didn’t listen” to her and she “felt like I was dying”.
“I could barely walk,” she added.
The star, who recently appeared in EastEnders and in a charity boxing match for Sport Relief, said she later spoke to a US-based doctor who has been removing breast implants in women in Texas for more than 20 years.
He advised her to have hers removed, telling her she was suffering because of the implants.
“I always suspected it deep down, but to hear a doctor finally give me an answer was the best feeling,” she said.
She said she felt “stupid and embarrassed that I’d done this to myself”.
I did not take a penny for this article, it’s purely to raise awareness on the lied about risks of implants & we run the page https://t.co/Jbqyqr8FKD for any women in the uk to get in contact who are looking for help/support❤️☮️ lots of love Hannah Xx https://t.co/N2tTUXtPON
— Hannah Spearritt (@hannahspearritt) April 8, 2018
Spearritt had an operation to have the implants removed in April 2016, and felt “60% better almost instantly”.
“My temperature rose up to normal and my fever disappeared, as did the fatigue and anxiety,” she said, adding her “natural energy just came back”.
She said she does not want to “scaremonger” but warned women considering the procedure to “read up on the potential dangers and read stories like mine”.
She added: “Actually, yeah – just don’t get breast implants.”