PCOS can come with issues that affect our appearance. If you go onto forums about this condition you will find many posts that show women in distress regarding how they look. In many of us, our skin, hair and body shape are victims to this disease. #pcosawareness
Tuberous/hypoplastic breasts are something that I have mentioned on my website. They are one of the lesser talked about characteristics of PCOS. Just like all the other ones, not everyone with PCOS will have them but they are usually just as hard on our body image.
In this post an explanation of this "deformity" and how it relates to PCOS will be discussed.
What tuberous/hypoplastic breasts are
This is a condition in which breasts are shaped in a way that is considered abnormal. When googling these you will find the following characteristics of them:
1. Saggy
2. Tubular in appearance (hence the name)
3. Elongated
4. Lacking tissue
5. Lacking sufficient glandular tissue
6. Sit high on chest
7. Large areolas
8. Lacking cleavage
9. Spaced widely apart
10. Asymmetrical
11. Do not fit bras properly
12. Stretch marks despite being small
There are also many wonderful women out in the world who have let their tuberous breasts be shown on the internet. You can find pictures that show mild to severe forms of the condition (www.007b.com is a great site to visit for pictures of different shaped breasts).
The rate of women that have this condition is currently unknown, but it is considered to be relatively rare. It is often when women look up breasts or plastic surgery that they discover they have this "deformity." #breastimplants
A complication of having tuberous breasts is that it may cause difficulty or the inability to breastfeed. This is due to not having enough glandular tissue produce the amount of milk needed for a baby. Supplementing with formula might be necessary.
Tuberous breasts and PCOS
Despite tuberous breasts first showing up in medical literature in 1976, the causation still isn't well known. What we do know about it is that the breasts fail to develop as they should. This means that it happens during the puberty process. We are unable to tell before puberty whether or not one's breasts will be tuberous.
Hormones (estrogen and progesterone) are what cause breasts to grow. Because women with PCOS have issues with their hormones, this may be a reason that some of us have them. Looking through the PCOS subreddit, there are quite a few posts from women talking about their experiences with having them.
Having tuberous breasts on top of all the other PCOS symptoms is a really hard thing to accept. Hearing that there may be difficulty with breast milk production on top of fertility issues can be crushing. Fortunately, there are communities here on the internet where women with PCOS can gather and support each other.
What can be done about these breasts?
There is currently no cure for them aside from surgery. You are going to have to do research on doctors that have experience in doing tuberous breasts correction surgery (example of one: https://www.hoefflinplasticsurgery.com/breast/tuberous-breast-correction/). Make sure to look up photos on their sites to see what kinds of results they have gotten for their patients.
Some women have reported that taking birth control gave a rounder appearance to their breasts. One shouldn't count on this helping them though.
My thoughts
I have disliked my breasts since I was 16 years old. For whatever reason, my sexual partners have not said anything negative about them. Maybe they were just being nice.
Wearing underwire bras is painful for me. This is because I don't fill them out and the wire digs into my chest. Even if it is a push-up bra, I never have cleavage. I also hate the stretch marks on them.
My dislike of my tuberous breasts came to a head when I couldn't breastfeed like I wanted to. Despite pumping frequently, the most I was ever able to produce was two ounces. Also. my son barely got anything when I put him to my breasts. This was incredibly heartbreaking for me and I felt so guilty that I could not provide what is supposed to be the best nourishment for a baby.
While I don't feel as bad now about my breasts as just a few years ago, I still wish they were "normal." Honestly, if I had the money I would get them corrected in a heartbeat. It is probably not going to happen though. I just need to work at coming to terms with them.
Sources used:
Do you have tuberous breasts or know someone who does?
Thank you for writing this💕
You are the first person I have seen who has ever written about this. mine are exactly what you described and when I gain weight it's worse cause the tube one is way larger than the other. the Nurses were looking at me like am weird and why I have no milk production etc.
recently I have been having pain on that larger one and with pcos doing a breast exam it's usually a lot of tissue or fat. I recently seen that pain under the chest bone is common with women with pcos another thing to add
thanks for this seriously. I am glad you mentioned this.
ps yours look great... mine the nipples look like they are second…