Air travel with silicon prosthesis

Hi N - I have flown to from CA to Europe several times post MX. You will be fine to wear it through security, but they may pat you down if there is metal in your body post surgery, etc. Just tell them you had breast cancer surgery. You do not need a prescription. Don't be worried. I am glad you are going home to visit family in India. Please wear support socks for the long flight, it prevents ankles from swelling. Enjoy your flight!

I've only flown domestically, but always wear silicon forms and have never been questioned. I've been assigned TSA pre-check, have been through metal detectors & have done the full-body scan, all with forms in a mastectomy bra - never had any problems, questions or comments.

Good luck & safe travels!

By all means, wear the prostheses. Packing them in your suitcase means there is a chance of them being damaged .

If you haven't travel with prostheses before, I found storing them in a mastectomy bra hanging from a door knob was a good way to store them when I wasn't wearing them. This method meant I didn't need to bring a box to put them in at night.

KayaRose,

I think it's unlikely that you'd be patted down with TSA Pre-Check, since most of the time with that you just go through a metal detector, which wouldn't pick up anything unusual from a silicone breast form. I always wear my unweighted foam forms when flying and use TSA Pre-Check and I've never been patted down. Before I had TSA Pre, I sometimes was patted down after going through the wave detector.

That's just been my experience, of course. Sometimes pat-down can happen for weird inexplicable reasons. The last time I flew with my husband, he was patted down and I wasn't.

Erica, the TSA agent I asked about pre-check still requiring a pat down was a woman and she also had a mastectomy. Small world. Also, I usually fly out of O'Hare airport in Chicago. I don't go through a metal detector. It's a type of X-ray machine. Don't know what it's called but you stand in it with your arms above your head. It gives them a look at you similar to an X-ray. Maybe that's why they spot something abnormal about me.

Kaya Rose, I think the type of machine you're describing is a millimeter wave scanner (I just called it a wave machine in my earlier post). When airport screening got serious after 9/11, I believe the first scanners they used emitted a very low dose of radiation. They claimed it was minimal but, after having had breast radiation, I didn't want to add any more rads to my body. So, I used to always just opt for a pat-down. Not fun, but mostly the women who did it were pleasant and respectful. Then, TSA gradually replaced most, if not all, of the x-ray type scanners with millimeter wave scanners that don't have radiation -- I think they use microwaves, but don't quote me. :-) I don't mind going through those and most of the time the agents don't make me have a pat-down afterwards, but once in a while they do.

With TSA pre-check, most of the time the machines they use are the old-fashioned metal detectors and I've never been singled out for a pat-down with one of those. But every once in a while (at the airports I've been to), they have even TSA pre-check passengers go through the millimeter wave scanners. I don't really mind being patted down -- the main issue is that if I'm traveling alone, sometimes I worry about keeping an eye on my carry-on bags while they do it.

Given Chloesmom's experience with her support stockings, maybe the silicone forms appear differently in the millimeter wave machines than the foam ones I mostly wear...

What seems strange to me is that when I wore silicone prostheses, I would be routinely patted down at the airport. Once I did reconstruction with silicone implants, I have never been stopped.

I am not sure why internal placement of sacks of silicone is less suspicious than external placement.

I always tell the security people that I had a mastectomy and wear a prosthesis.

A few times they have patted me down really fast, often they have not.

If you are at risk for Lymphedema, make sure you wear a sleeve!!

I just flew from Orlando (MCO) to Detroit (DTW) and back wearing my silicone prosthesis. The full body scanner at MCO detected them. Told the female TSA agent that I had the prosthesis. She said that she would have to do a pat down, but that, "I would rather you be here than not." It was a quick check, and frankly I didn't feel a thing. At DTW, it was a walkthrough scanner which didn't detected anything.

Wore compression sleeves and found my hands hurting midflight. Luckily I had some arthritis compression gloves in my carry on and wore them the rest of the flight. On the way back I wore both. I will be getting gauntlets for any future flights.

I have two artificial knees and can't go through any metal detector without alarms ringing. I can declare them all day but I still must do the scanner or a pat-down. I don't even attempt the metal detectors anymore.

I flew a couple of times with a silicone prosthesis, and at the time, airports were using the x-ray scanners. I opted for the pat-down. Easy peasy. Now that the millimeter wave scanners are used, I don't have any issues except for the occasional grumpy TSA agent who insists I raise my hands higher. I have a wonky shoulder from rads, so it's not comfortable. Thanks, breast cancer.