Alice Hart-Davis is 45 years old and a renowned beauty journalist who wouldn’t back out of most things to be among the first to test out a new beauty treatment. When Macrolane started being used on a wider scale in the UK (it’s still pending FDA clearance in the US), she was in the first wave of women to have the injections done. She was, she says, the ideal candidate: thin, flat-chested and eager to try out something new relying only on promotion for the product and on the reputation of the manufacturer (Q-Med, which also makes Restylane).

She did not even bother to read the small print in the consent form, or she would have noticed that it mentioned that Macrolane use “for breast enhancement has not been established,” and that it could lead to adverse reactions including lumps, hardness and capsular contraction. All she wanted to know at that moment, as per her own admission, was that it could enlarge her bust by one cup size for about a year (14 months tops) and that she could have it done without too much pain or recovery time.

In just a couple of months, though, Hart-Davis began to feel sorry for rushing into having the procedure done. One of her breasts encapsulated, while the other one went incredibly soft, making it very hard for her to wear anything following her body line. She went back to the doctor’s and had a “touch up,” only to develop a palpable lump – and it was then that she eventually found out that, when having such a procedure, women should pay attention to all the details.

“It seems that plastic surgeons are not keen on Macrolane either, and not because it is invading their territory. David Ross, a consultant plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon, who is head of plastic surgery at Guy’s and Thomas’ and practices privately at The London Clinic, is one who would not dream of using it. I have significant reservations. While many of the hyaluronic acid-based materials have been shown to be safe when used around the face and in small volumes, we have to be much more cautious when injecting material in the breast, and we have to have the benefit of long-term follow-up.”

Hart-Davis says in the Daily Mail, “I do feel that people have been misled with this product, which did not deliver what it promised for me, and is not backed up by the sort of studies that we have come to expect from a company of Q-Med’s stature. Women are being misled, particularly by the hype from the clinics promoting it, and by over-enthusiastic early adopters like me who raced to give a thumbs-up without thought of possible consequences.”

What I always wonder about macrolane is how many women who have had it go back for the top ups. That would be the most useful information about macrolane that you could get.