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Here are some references to the bra topic that you will find interesting. www.all-natural.com/fibrocys.html Discusses case histories from women who have elected to go bra-free and the benefits they found to their breast health www.all-natural.com/bras.html Discusses the many factors involved in the bra/breast disease issue A timeline for the history of bra / breast disease research Links to interesting and informative sites: http://www.007b.com/index.php Topics include breast taboo, breast obsession, wonderful breastmilk, bras and breast health, legality of bare breasts, breastfeeding pictures, normal breasts gallery, and more. http://www.bustfreeonline.co.uk It's a fact that 95% of women will never accept that a bra is harming their health. This site markets a practical alternative to the bra - breast cups which have no straps, bands, clasps, etc. For those wishing to go bra-free but still desiring some 'support'. These cups are just about as safe as it is possible to make a breast support - certainly much less constraining than a conventional bra. http://www.brafree.org/index.htm A medical doctor discusses her reasons for bra-abstinance and her experiences discussing this with her patients. http://www.tekline.co.uk/natbra.htm http://www.parama.com/html/naturism.html A particularly interesting site discussing the negative effects of clothing on body image Case Studies from bra-free women and their experiences: Sandy's story - a case history Chris's story - a case history Jan's story - another case history Margaret's story - another case history Some relevant medical information and medical quotes: Oxytocin and breast cancer Abstracts of medical references discussing the production of Oxytocin by breast stimulation Doctor's quotes on Fibrocystic breast disease Medical doctors quotes on FBD and bra wearing Lumpy Breasts? Burn Your Bra! by Doris Lane August 10, 2000 Something like 70% of women in their twenties and 60% of women in their thirties develop fibrocystic or "lumpy" breasts. Well over half of all women have lumpy breasts. Some breast lumps can be permanent and still be benign, while others appear and dissolve and are benign. I developed my lumpy breasts in my forties and instead of improving, as it was expected to do, with menopause, the discomfort worsened into my fifties. My breasts grew denser and denser until an ultrasound would reveal one impenetrable mass on either side of my chest. "You have more cysts in your breasts than I have ever seen in my entire professional life," I was told by an actual doctor. "I can't see a single spot of normal tissue." Shakespeare said, "First kill all the lawyers," but then the Bard didn't have lumpy breasts. The term fibrocystic breasts describes not a disease but a condition, more precisely a collection of more than a dozen different cystic conditions, all with the defining characteristic that they are not breast cancer. But don't tell that to the poor female who is lugging around two rocks suspended from her breastbone and shoulder bones. Do not say it to the woman for whom a cotton sheet is too heavy a night covering and a tee shirt weighs one thousand pounds. To have fibrocystic breasts is to be for some part or for all of the time in constant pain. Anything that hurts that much just has to be cancer is what we think. So a diagnosis of fibrocystic breasts comes as welcome news indeed. And we bear with fortitude the sticking of long thin needles into cyst after cyst after cyst to aspirate the fluid that proves we do not, after all, have cancer. Mammograms are an experience of deepest suffering for women with lumpy breasts, as what seems like a sadistic technician from hell clamps each breast between what feels like vise grips and squeezes it flat. But we undergo this annual torture just to know we do not have cancer. A formerly held medical belief that benign cysts are pre-cancerous conditions has been disproved and biopsies show no difference in breast tissue of women whose breasts are fibrocystic and those not. What we do have are sacs of fluid that range in size from peas to lemons. Some of them can feel a bit hard, but in the main benign cysts are soft and smooth, and they can be moved around easily. Breasts are lumpy by nature and 80% of those lumps are benign. Some women, of course, have a predisposition to breast cancer. Falling within that group are those with risk factors such as early menstruation, late menopause, either no children or childbirths after age 30, and a family history of breast cancer. But please know that 75% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no risk factors at all and some 90% of breast cancer is not hereditary. Please know this and do not take too much heart in your fibrocystic breasts. The only way to know for sure that you do not have breast cancer is through self-examination, mammogram, ultrasound, aspiration and biopsy. It's a shame and it hurts like hell, but if going through all that saves your life, then you will just have to do it. The condition, fibrocystic breasts, is not curable and nobody really knows what causes it, except that it has something to do with hormonal change. Analgesics may help alleviate the pain and the entire condition may be somewhat improved by avoidance of caffeine and alcohol. A daily regimen of supplements may also help: Vitamin B6, 100-200 mg. Vitamin E, 400-600 units Evening Primrose Oil, 200-500 units Kelp Doctors also recommend wearing firm, well-fitted, and very supportive bras, even sleeping in them. And this is where my own opinion comes in. I tried every single thing I mention here as recommended treatments and to no avail. My breasts grew more and more painful as time went on, my mammograms more and more dreaded, and forget about wanting anybody else to touch the poor suffering things. Then something changed in my life. I stopped working in an office. I started working at home. Now I didn't literally burn my bra in 1969. I just took it off one night and never put it back on until after I was 40. I didn't put it back on because of sagging: if I do say so myself, those babies were still nice and perky. I did it because I was reaching middle age and working in corporate America and feeling embarrassed at this remnant of hippie freedom. But I never liked it ever. I hated every minute of wearing a bra and when I got home from work off it came. It's just that I was working 10 and 12 hours a day, so most of every day for five days out of every week, I was strapped into a bra. I was basically removing my bra and going to bed. Once I stopped working outside, I did not immediately stop wearing bras, because of the medical advice I had been given. But little by little, I did stop. The more freedom I had in my appearance, the less I found myself wearing a bra, and I found I was experiencing less and less breast pain, until after only six months of going braless I now have none. No breast pain ever. In thinking about this, I realized that my fibrocystic breast problem had not existed until I was in my forties and coincided with the time I had returned to wearing a bra. Since almost all women do wear bras, perhaps there is some connection of this undergarment to the prevalence of the condition. I am not a health care professional. I certainly would not advise a woman to ignore her doctor's advice, but, if it is not working for you, and if you are comfortable with the idea, why not give it a try? If you must wear a bra for support or appearance, or even comfort, you could try wearing a sports bra. For the times I feel uncomfortable going braless in public, I do wear a sports bra under clothing of any kind. Whatever you do, if you have breast pain, do not wear an under-wire or other push-up bra. As for the support issue, let's face it, my fifty-something boobs are never going to stand proud again no matter what I do. There is a school of thought that says bras weaken the muscles that normally support breast tissue and end up causing more sag than they prevent. I don't know. Your decision has to be based on what makes sense to you and what you are comfortable with. If you have lumpy breasts, burn your bra? It is entirely up to you. But I can tell you I drink a cup of coffee in the morning and have a glass or two of wine or a cocktail whenever I damn well please. |