It was a simple phone call that was the trigger.
A call made in May 2020 between two people, not yet friends but close enough to go into the field of the most intimate confidence: "How am I?"
In ten days, I have to have a mastectomy.
I have breast cancer.
This is how Geraldine announces the removal of her left breast to Julien, without suspecting for a single moment that, from this conversation, a world first will emerge: the creation of tailor-made and ultra-realistic breast prostheses both in terms of their density. , their texture, shape and color.
While Pink October is in full swing, this annual communication campaign, intended to raise awareness of breast cancer screening, is an opportunity to present this innovation which aims "to put 3D at the service of humans", specifies Julien .
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Because Julien Montenero for civil status
is not a simple professional that Geraldine, sales representative for medical devices, met in salons. He is a pioneering technician, facial, dental and maxillofacial prosthetist using 3D scanner technology for over ten years. Broken faces, he repaired a number of them, in particular by working from time to time with Médecins sans frontières. Replacing an anatomical volume that no longer exists after having previously recorded it or not, he knows how to do it. So why not the breasts of women mutilated by life-saving surgery? "Because nobody thought of it", simply launches Julien Montenero.
He had this project which had been maturing for seventeen years.
“People close to me have died from breast cancer.
I told Geraldine that I had this prosthesis project in mind for a long time and asked her if she was up for helping me.
That's how it all started, ”explains the professional.
“I did a guinea pig, in short, ironically Geraldine, but it did me good.
I am someone who grinds fairly quickly.
However, we were invested in this work, everything did not revolve around the disease.
"
"It is the mirror of the breast that was existing"
She was in fact the first to benefit from the prosthesis, before making the decision to undergo breast reconstruction surgery. It is not a necessary step. “By choosing a mastectomy, I had already taken the option of breast reconstruction immediately. But it is a personal choice. My mother, who had the same cancer and a mastectomy, lived well for years without her breast. It is now in Julien's hands, ”adds Geraldine. Four women have already been helped. They are free to switch from a temporary prosthesis to a permanent one even closer to the absent breast, and / or to choose surgery afterwards. They can in fact keep the prosthesis as long as they want or decide to remain an “Amazon”.
While mastectomy affects a third of women with breast cancer (more than 50,000 new cases per year), of this third, 78% would not proceed with surgical reconstruction. “Once again: it's a personal choice. My own great fear, when I was diagnosed with this cancer, was the treatment, the chemo… My mother had been there and I knew what would await me. It is extremely heavy. With a mastectomy, I had a one in two chance of not needing treatment. I took this risk, ”continues Geraldine, 46 years old. But for her, there is no question of remaining without a breast while waiting for surgery. "I can not find a guy with two breasts, so only one ...", laughs frankly this single mother of two children.
Before her mastectomy and programmed reconstruction, the quadra therefore avoided "the traditional" silicone pocket as a substitute, "super heavy and which looks like nothing" requiring the purchase of adapted bras, very expensive ... And - detail which is not - which only exist in white. Two months after the operation to allow healing to take place, she went directly to the prosthesis made by Julien Montenero in Paris. A true copy of her breast, the curve of which had been recorded and then scanned before the ablation.
"You can slip it under a classic bra or make it stand alone with a medical adhesive, put on necklines, tank tops ...", lists Geraldine.
“It is the mirror of the breast that was existing.
And if the women have already undergone the ablation when they come to see me, I am as close as possible to reality ”, specifies Julien Montenero.
A structure exclusively dedicated to the development of this single innovation has just integrated an incubator in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), contacts have already been made with interested hospitals, certification is in progress.
A necessity to lower the price of the temporary prosthesis which currently amounts to 1,000 euros, 6,000 euros for a final one.
