Black Market Silicone

"Black Market Silicone and Mandy Goodhandy's Near Death Experience"

This week, Mandy Goodhandy will be recording from the intensive care ward of a Toronto hospital. On October 25, she received some silicone injections. Shortly after the procedure, she started feeling out of sorts, and thought she was coming down with a flu. By Monday, she was feeling very out of breath and weak, and Tuesday decided to go to hospital. 

Black market silicone is a controversial and illegal practice performed in hotel rooms, apartments, or clinics around the world. It is very common for the trans woman community, because it is one of the easiest ways to augment and shape the hips and buttocks. There has been a lot of press about this lately, because some fairly high profile cases happened in the USA where a woman was charged with holding "pumping parties" and using substandard products (there are cases where people use rubber cement, low grade silicone, mineral oils, and other substances). 

Like many trans women, Mandy Goodhandy has been getting silicone injections for many years. Not a lot of discussion goes into the risks, but she took her chances and continued to get the shots, as the results were so good. Until this last session, she had no bad reactions. 

What the doctors are theorizing is that somehow particles of silicone may have gotten into the blood stream, and travelled and/or caused an infection or allergic reaction to her lungs. She is currently undergoing intense treatment to get her breathing back to normal, but she is still in the intensive care unit, as this type of reaction is uncommon in the medical community. 

Mandy Goodhandy is recording this show not to demonize the practice of black market silicone, but to share her experience with the world so that other girls know that there is a real risk.