In 2023, a team of plastic surgeons in Geneva published the first prospective study on the silicone nipple, in the form of a nipple-areola complex prosthesis, in an international medical journal. What they measured produces real numbers. And those numbers are striking — they confirm what I have been hearing for a long time about the silicone nipple.
The study is titled "The nipple-areola complex prosthesis: a new tool for breast reconstruction." It was authored by Ali Modarressi, Louisa Empen and Charlotte Favre, and published in JPRAS Open. Twenty patients, all undergoing unilateral reconstruction after a mastectomy with nipple excision.
The results speak for themselves.
95%
satisfied with appearance and symmetry
100%
more satisfied with their body image and self-esteem
90%
with no skin reaction or complication
100%
would recommend these prostheses to other women
The numbers are clear on the satisfaction women feel with a silicone nipple
95% satisfaction with appearance. That is already a lot. But what strikes me is the other figure: 100% of the women say they feel more satisfied with their body image and self-esteem. Not some of them. All of them.
This is not an aesthetic outcome. It is a psychological one. It is the scientific confirmation of what I have observed since I started working on this subject: restoring a nipple and an areola is not just a replacement, it is something deeper, and it reaches far beyond what is visible.
And the surgeons themselves conclude without hesitation: this device "should be offered to all patients in order to improve the management of breast reconstruction and to restore a healthy appearance."
"This simple, safe, non-invasive and affordable device should be offered to all patients." — Modarressi, Empen, Favre, JPRAS Open, 2023
What the study does not yet say about the custom silicone nipple
The study looks at standard prostheses, available in a range of shapes, sizes and colours to match different skin tones. That alone is a major step forward.
But a standard prosthesis remains a generic prosthesis. It looks like a nipple. It does not look like your nipple.
That is where everything is decided. If 100% of women see their self-esteem improve with a silicone nipple they had never seen before surgery, imagine what a prosthesis moulded on your own body, captured before the mastectomy, can do.
It is no longer a substitution. It is a restitution.
Reimbursement, the other battle for the silicone nipple
The researchers do not stop at satisfaction. They close their study with a recommendation addressed to health insurance bodies: these prostheses should be reimbursed for patients who have undergone a mastectomy.
Today, this is not the case. These devices exist, they work, the science proves it, and they are still paid for out of pocket by the women who need them.
Until that changes, what I am developing aims to make accessible what the study validates. A custom silicone nipple, made from the imprint of your own body, that can be created at home before the operation. And because the financial barrier should not be added to everything else, payment in instalments is available.
"All participants stated that they would recommend these prostheses to other women, as a temporary or definitive solution." — Modarressi et al., 2023
Science has validated the principle of the silicone nipple. What remains is to go further than what it has measured.
Reference: Modarressi A., Empen L., Favre C. "The nipple-areola complex prosthesis: a new tool for breast reconstruction." JPRAS Open, 2023. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpra.2023.11.006
