Despite the attention everyone knew would be focused on autoimmune diseases, the report said very little about the well-established shortcomings of those 17 studies. In fact, the scientists who wrote those studies were more critical of their own results than was this report. The 400-page report devoted only eight pages to the topic of epidemiological studies of autoimmune diseases, and those primarily described the studies, rather than carefully analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. Most scientists would agree with the report's conclusion that the available studies do not provide convincing evidence that implants cause autoimmune disease. Some of the diseases studied, such as scleroderma, are extremely rare, striking one in several hundred thousand women.
Many diseases also take years to develop.
We can't draw conclusions about long-term safety regarding rare diseases based on studies of a few thousand women, especially when many had implants for only a few months or a few years. Although it received much less attention, the report also pointed out that breast implants break, usually after 5-10 years, and that the silicone gel can spill into the body. These ruptures can result in silicone dripping from the nipples or terrible pain, and certainly require surgery. In addition to those serious problems, many of the women who are seriously ill believe their problems started when their implants broke. It would certainly make sense to study those women to see if they are more likely to have autoimmune or other diseases, but that has never been done.