Stephanie March Opens Up About Her Breast Implant Journey – and Her Regrets

Stephanie March decided to get a breast augmentation in August 2014, shortly after undergoing an appendectomy and surgery for her endometriosis, and during a time when her 14-year relationship with Bobby Flay was falling apart.

"I decided to change my body because I couldn't change my life," the Law & Order: SVU star, 41, wrote in a candid blog post for Refinery29. "In retrospect, there were signals that this might not be the right path for me. Every implant I tried on seemed alien, too large. I didn't feel ready to throw away my pretty bras. I worried that I'd look top-heavy. But I ignored the signs and soldiered on."

After her surgery, March was initially pleased with the results.

"I looked darn good," she said. "Skinny from my misery. Nice breasts from my wallet. My life may have been falling apart, but this? This was pretty good."

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But then in October, one of her implants became infected, and the seam on her right breast burst open.

"I had a hole in my breast for six weeks while I blasted my body with antibiotics," said March. "I had the implant put back in. I had another infection and rupture on Christmas Eve. I had it taken out again."

After consulting with several doctors, she discovered she was allergic to her implants.

"My body did not want them," said March. "I kept trying to 'fix' my body, and it kept telling me to leave it alone."

In the spring of 2015, she had her implants removed for good.

"I have accepted this episode as a part of my larger story, and I refuse to be ashamed of it," she said. "I am taking back my body, my story, and myself in a bathing suit."

"Today, the scars are fading into fine white lines," she continued. "Every day, the evidence of all that happened fades a little more, and my year of living terribly recedes into memory. All that I had, all that I was, from the beginning, was all I needed to be."