The impact Danica Patrick has made on NASCAR
A group of NASCAR drivers discuss the accomplishments of Danica Patrick.
USA TODAY Sports
Former auto racing star Danica Patrick is speaking out about Breast Implant Illness (BII), an illness she says is not widely known but very real. She battled it herself.
The 40-year-old, who shot to stardom first as an IndyCar driver before moving to NASCAR, opened up about her harrowing five-year battle with BII on Wednesday’s episode of The HypochondriActor, a podcast devoted to medical stories and medical advice, to raise awareness about the sickness.
“It was just a spiral,” Patrick told hosts Sean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali.
Patrick said she got breast implants in 2014, during her second full-time year in the NASCAR Cup Series, at age 32 to “have the whole package,” but the professional racer said she started experiencing unexplained symptoms in 2017.
“Everything seemed fine the first couple of years and then I would say that the issues …crept in at about mainly in three years later,” Patrick explained. “Over those next four years…issues continued to compound. Mine were very physical manifestations.”
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Her symptoms included hair loss, weight gain, fatigue, low hormones and high mercury levels. Patrick said one of her breast implants got rock-hard, followed soon by the other. She said this was caused by a capsular contracture, a capsule of scar tissue that becomes hard and contracts around the implant, according to BreastCancer.org.
“It’s an indicator that my body was rejecting it over the years. It probably took five to six years for both of them to form a really hard capsule,” Patrick said. “The implant was actually folded inside of the capsule that your body makes to protect you.”
Patrick had her breast implants for seven years before getting them surgically removed earlier this year. Although she’s still “dealing with heavy metal toxicity,” Patrick said she “felt so much better” without the implants and many of her unexplained symptoms reversed course.
Her goal is to help others who may be facing BII.
“This is a journey I felt compelled to share,” Patrick said in a YouTube video posted in May. ” If you are struggling and you have implants and you can’t fix it, there can be something wrong with them. They could be making you sick. I think it’s an important message for people to know because I tried so hard and tried many things.”
Patrick began her racing career in 2005 and drove for seven seasons in the IndyCar Series. In 2008, she became the first woman to win an IndyCar race, and the following year, she finished third in the Indianapolis 500 — setting the record for highest finish by a woman in the legendary race.
She joined the NASCAR Cup Series in 2012 and won the pole for the 2013 Daytona 500 — North America’s other legendary race — before finishing eighth. Patrick retired from full-time racing in 2017.
