When Allergan Pharmaceuticals announced a recall of its textured Biocell breast implants and tissue expanders last summer, the news grabbed headlines — and made many women who had undergone breast reconstruction uneasy.

Breast cancer survivors and previvors (women who have a predisposition to developing breast cancer, and sometimes undergo prophylactic mastectomy and reconstruction) struggled to make sense of what the recall meant for them. Some worried they’d unwittingly put themselves at risk for an entirely different type of cancer.