On Breasts

I think about boobs a lot.  Mainly because a. they're awesome and b. mine are constantly in the way or bothering me in some way.  I've never in my life owned a bra that was comfortable for more than 3 hours.  I've gained a lot of weight since starting grad school and it has made these things ginormous, which, when added to the giant backpack I carry with me all the time now that every spare minute should be study time--equals back pain.  I can't buy cute bras.  In fact, I can't buy bras from anywhere except Lane Bryant and Frederick's of Hollywood.  Victoria's Secret gave up on me a couple cup sizes ago.  But still, I love these things, and I want to take care of them.  The main issue is that I've come to a point that, when I've been wearing them too many hours of the day for too many days in a row, I get this searing, awful cramp right between my breasts, right over the sternum, that is so bad it literally takes my breath away.  I am not a pussy when it comes to pain, having dealt with periods from hell for decades, but this is unbearable.  I want to cry but I can't even do that, I just sit there hitting myself in the sternum, struggling to breathe.  The first time (in undergrad) I thought I was having a heart attack until I calmed down enough to realize that it was just muscle pain.  It doesn't happen often, but that's really only because generally I put on my bra last thing in the morning and take it off as soon as I get home.

So, I saw a headline about bras not being so good for you after all.  Of course, science in the news is always condensed and misread, and people take good work and turn it into "bananas definitely cause cancer!!!!!!!". "Eat raspberries and you'll NEVER DIE!"  So, I went and read some studies.

The claim that bras are a risk factor for cancer is not really established.  The claim is that, by not allowing breast to move naturally, the lymphatic flow is disturbed, which could lead to an increased risk.  This isn't really shown, as surgeries that completely block the lymphatic flow do not lead to increased cancer rates.  So, this is not a good enough reason to go bra free.

However, I have been reading about breast ligaments.  It has been shown in several studies that women who went bra free, even during physical activity, showed a great increase in breast perkiness and a decrease in breast and back pain.  The distance from nipple to shoulder was decreased in a large majority of the women, regardless of breast size.  Their shoulder muscles were more developed.

Ligaments, when not in use, will atrophy, this is known.  What people don't think about is that there are ligaments in the breast, and stretching of these is a major contributor to saggy boobies.   Well, if you're constantly hiking those babies up in a contraption, these ligaments are not in use!  Of all the studies I looked at, the recommendation was to limit your bra use as much as possible, even during sports.  The only thing was that if  you have rather large breasts (ahem, me), and you will be doing a rigorous activity that will cause a lot of major bouncing, you should wear a sports bra to limit the throwing around of tits, as this could lead to stretching the ligaments (as you would know if you ever, ever saw a girl like me jump up and down without any support.  But there's no need for a completely constricting sports bra for even this kind of activity, just enough to keep the full weight of those girls from slamming down.

So, in light of this, I've begun an experiment.  I went bra free yesterday.  I will be using nothing but those flimsy little camisoles that barely contain me and an occasional sports bra if I'm gonna be running and jumping (won't be too often until I get my exams done).  And I'll be taking pictures to see if it does indeed change my perk factor.  I'll be taking notes on my back pain and breast tenderness.  I plan on going until my conference at ARVO starting May 4th(gotta look professional, gotta hike em up), and see how I feel up until that point as to whether I want to continue or not.

One full day into the experiment, I will say that I LOVE not wearing a bra.  God it feels good.  I'm working on improving my posture, as I have gotten to the point where hunching over was the best way to improve the pain from my bra straps.  But I can already tell that I'm improving subconsciously.  So, we'll see how it goes.  Maybe in a week I'll say fuck it and realize it ain't worth it.  Maybe I'll never buy another torture device again.  All I know is I love these girls and I gotta do right by them.