The breast is a mound of glandular, fatty and fibrous tissue located over the pectoralis muscles of the chest wall and attached to these muscles by fibrous strands (Cooper's ligaments). The breast itself has no muscle tissue, which is why exercises will not build up the breasts. A layer of fat surrounds the breast glands and extends throughout the breast.
This fatty tissue gives the breast a soft consistency and gentle, flowing contour. The actual breast is composed of fat, glands with the capacity for milk production when stimulated by special hormones, blood vessels, milk ducts to transfer the milk from the glands to the nipples and sensory nerves that give feeling to the breast. These nerves extend upward from the muscle layer through the breast and are highly sensitive, especially in the regions of the nipple and areola, which accounts for the sexual responsiveness of some women's breasts.
Because the breast is made up of tissues with different textures, it may not have a smooth surface and often feels lumpy. This irregularity is especially noticeable when a woman is thin and has little breast fat to soften the contours; it becomes less obvious after menopause, when the cyclic changes and endocrine stimulation of the breast have ceased and the glandular tissue softens.
Estrogen supplements after menopause can cause continued lumpiness. The breast glands drain into a collecting system of ducts that go to the base of the nipple. The ducts then extend through the nipple and open on its outer surface. In addition to serving as a channel for milk, these ducts are often the source of breast problems
The ducts end in the nipple, (which projects from the surface of the breast), and are a conduit for the milk secreted by the glands and suckled by a baby during breast-feeding. There is considerable variation in women's nipples.
In some, the nipple is constantly erect; in others, it only becomes erect when stimulated by cold, physical contact or sexual activity. Still other women have inverted nipples.
Surrounding the nipple is a slightly raised circle of pigmented skin called the areola. The nipple and areola contain specialized muscle fibers that make the nipple erect and give the areola its firm texture. The areola also contains Montgomery's glands, which may appear as small, raised lumps on the surface of the areola. These glands lubricate the areola and are not symptoms of an abnormal condition.
Beneath the breast is a large muscle, the pectoralis major, which assists in arm movement; the breast rests on this muscle. Originating on the chest wall, the pectoralis major extends from deep under the breast to attach to the upper arm. It also helps form the axillary fold, created where the arm and chest wall meet. The axilla (armpit) is the depression behind this fold.
Each woman's breasts are shaped differently. Individual breast appearance is influenced by the volume of a woman's breast tissue and fat, her age, a history of previous pregnancies and lactation, her heredity, the quality and elasticity of her breast skin and the influence of hormones.
source:www.ayurvediccure.com
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Breast Anatomy
Breast Health Guide for Teens
Women's breasts come in all shapes and sizes. There is no perfect shape or size for breasts. Normal breasts can be large or small, smooth or lumpy, and light or dark.
Most young women have a lot of questions about their breasts. This guide was created to answer some of the most common questions girls have about breast health.
How do breasts develop?
The inside of your breasts is made up of fatty tissue and many milk-producing glands, called mammary glands. The dark area of your breast around your nipple is called the areola. As your body starts to develop, a small bump grows under the areola and nipple. This bump is called the breast bud. As the buds get larger and rounder, the breasts grow.
As your breasts develop, the areolae get bigger and darker. Areolae and nipples can range in color from light pink to purplish to light gray depending on your skin color.
When will I get breasts?
Your breasts start growing when you begin puberty. Puberty is the name for the time when your body goes through changes and you begin to go from being a child to an adult. During puberty the hormone levels in your body change and this causes your breasts to develop and your menstrual periods to start. Heredity (the way certain characteristics are passed down from generation to generation) and nutrition determine when you are going to begin puberty and develop breasts. Most girls' breasts begin growing when they are about 10 or 11 years old, but some girls may start developing breasts earlier or later than this age.
How long will it take to get breasts?
It takes three to five years from the time your breasts start growing until they reach their full size. The age when you start to develop does not have an effect on the final size of your breasts. For example, if you develop earlier than most girls, this doesn't mean that you will have bigger breasts than most girls.
Is there anything I can do to increase the size of my breasts?
Heredity is the most important factor in determining breast shape and size. No creams, exercises, or clothing will change your breast size. Your breasts may change with weight loss or gain or after a pregnancy, but for the most part the size of your breasts stays the same once you have finished puberty. Also, breast size has no effect on whether a woman will be able to breastfeed her baby.
When and how will my breasts make milk?
Inside a woman's breasts are tiny pockets called alveoli. After a woman gives birth, her body's hormones tell her alveoli to produce milk. When her baby sucks on her nipple, the sucking draws milk from the alveoli through the milk ducts and out small holes in the nipple. When the mother stops breast-feeding her baby, her alveoli slowly stop making milk.
youngwomenshealth.org
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How to Perform a Breast Self-Exam
Beginning in their 20s, women should be told about the benefits and limitations of breast self-exam (BSE). Women should know how their breasts normally look and feel and report any new breast changes to a health professional as soon as they are found. Finding a breast change does not necessarily mean there is a cancer.
A woman can notice changes by being aware of how her breasts normally look and feel and by feeling her breasts for changes (breast awareness), or by choosing to use a step-by-step approach (see below) and using a specific schedule to examine her breasts.
If you choose to do BSE, the information below is a step-by-step approach for the exam. The best time for a woman to examine her breasts is when the breasts are not tender or swollen. Women who examine their breasts should have their technique reviewed during their periodic health exams by their health care professional.
Women with breast implants can do BSE. It may be helpful to have the surgeon help identify the edges of the implant so that you know what you are feeling. There is some thought that the implants push out the breast tissue and may actually make it easier to examine. Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding can also choose to examine their breasts regularly.
It is acceptable for women to choose not to do BSE or to do BSE once in a while. Women who choose not to do BSE should still be aware of the normal look and feel of their breasts and report any changes to their doctor right away.
How to examine your breasts
* Lie down and place your right arm behind your head. The exam is done while lying down, not standing up. This is because when lying down the breast tissue spreads evenly over the chest wall and is as thin as possible, making it much easier to feel all the breast tissue.
* Use the finger pads of the 3 middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in the right breast. Use overlapping dime-sized circular motions of the finger pads to feel the breast tissue.
hand self exam
* Use 3 different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue. Light pressure is needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin; medium pressure to feel a little deeper; and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs. A firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast is normal. If you're not sure how hard to press, talk with your doctor or nurse. Use each pressure level to feel the breast tissue before moving on to the next spot.
* Move around the breast in an up and down pattern starting at an imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the middle of the chest bone (sternum or breastbone). Be sure to check the entire breast area going down until you feel only ribs and up to the neck or collar bone (clavicle).
breast self exam instructions
* There is some evidence to suggest that the up-and-down pattern (sometimes called the vertical pattern) is the most effective pattern for covering the entire breast, without missing any breast tissue.
* Repeat the exam on your left breast, using the finger pads of the right hand.
* While standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing firmly down on your hips, look at your breasts for any changes of size, shape, contour, or dimpling, or redness or scaliness of the nipple or breast skin. (The pressing down on the hips position contracts the chest wall muscles and enhances any breast changes.)
* Examine each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your arm only slightly raised so you can easily feel in this area. Raising your arm straight up tightens the tissue in this area and makes it harder to examine.
This procedure for doing breast self exam is different than in previous recommendations. These changes represent an extensive review of the medical literature and input from an expert advisory group. There is evidence that this position (lying down), area felt, pattern of coverage of the breast, and use of different amounts of pressure increase a woman's ability to find abnormal areas.
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Three decades of the world's most spectacular natural curves
The Golden Hills before the Silicone Valley: Three decades of the world's most spectacular natural curves
Some call it the American obsession, but men everywhere recognize the hypnotic allure of a large and shapely breast. In The Big Book of Breasts, Dian Hanson explores the origins of mammary madness through three decades of natural big-breasted nudes. Starting with the World War II Bosom-Mania that spawned Russ Meyer, Howard Hughes's The Outlaw and Frederick's of Hollywood, Dian guides you over, around, and in between the dangerous curves of infamous models including Michelle Angelo, Candy Barr, Virginia Bell, Joan Brinkman, Lorraine Burnett, Lisa De Leeuw, Uschi Digard, Candye Kane, Jennie Lee, Sylvia McFarland, Margaret Middleton, Paula Page, June Palmer, Roberta Pedon, Rosina Revelle, Candy Samples, Tempest Storm, Linda West, June Wilkinson, Julie Wills, and dozens more, including Guinness World Record holder Norma Stitz, possessor of the World`s Largest Natural Breasts.
The 396 pages of this book contain the most beautiful and provocative photos ever created of these iconic women, plus nine original interviews, including the first with Tempest Storm and Uschi Digard in over a decade, and the last with Candy Barr before her untimely death in 2005. In a world where silicone is now the norm, these spectacular real women stand as testament that nature knows best.
About the editor:
Dian Hanson was born in Seattle in 1951. She has been TASCHEN's sexy book editor since 2001. Prior to that she worked for 25 years producing various men's magazines. Her many books for TASCHEN include The Complete Kake Comics, The Big Book of Breasts, and The Big Penis Book. She lives in Los Angeles.
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Breast Cancer Scares Me
Despite the fact that I surely know better far, far better, actually I have to admit that the thought of breast cancer scares me to death.
It turns out I'm not the only woman out there dreading the diagnosis of breast cancer. On the iVillage Breast Cancer Support board, women report that they're "worried to the point of tears," "nervous" about finding a lump, scared about their scheduled lumpectomy. Still other iVillagers have triumphed over breast cancer as you can see in our survivors' photo gallery.
The American Cancer Society reports that the number of women getting routine mammograms has fallen 2%, which means that fewer women are being diagnosed. A recent iVillage Index poll reveals that 63% of respondents answer "yes" to having ever skipped a yearly mammogram. Why are women not getting screened?
When asked in a national poll about the influence of lifestyle choices on preventing heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, breast cancer and depression, the majority of women feels that breast cancer is more the result of "luck of the draw" vs. lifestyle choices that they make.
- Have a clinical breast exam every three years (if you are under the age of 40)
- Get a mammogram every one to two years after age 40 (or possibly sooner or more often if you're at higher risk for developing breast cancer)
I'm no longer the traumatized young teen in the hallway outside my grandmother's hospital room. I'm now a wife, mother, executive, aunt, philanthropist. I've had my own share of health scares.
My kids are the ones who motivate me to get screened. My younger guy asks me periodically if a newscast triggers the thought, "hey mom, did you get the boob-o-gram?"
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Breast taboo
In North America and in many other westernized countries a woman's breasts are a taboo: they are supposed to be hidden. Exposing woman's breasts in public is considered shameful and inappropriate ("indecent exposure") even on beaches or while breastfeeding. In other words, breasts - or at least the nipple - are supposed to be covered at all times.
Parents tend to teach their children the same way, and many times children don't see a single naturally nude breast (apart from their own) while growing up. It is totally possible that a child grows up in North America and never sees a baby breastfeeding!
However, while exposing breasts in public is a 'no-no', children and young people often see breasts (although practically never the nipples) displayed in a sexually provocative fashion on television, on the Internet, and in magazines. Breasts are actually emphasized in the advertisements, which signals to our young people that breasts are a sexual object, and only beautiful when big and protruding.
However, we know that the larger breasts in the media is often just a fallacy, since the models and actors use push-up bras and breast enlargement to artificially enhance the way their breasts look like. Just think: if young girls continually see this propaganda without a balancing view of natural naked breasts, it is no wonder they also start seriously worrying about the size and shape of their own breasts even to the point of suicide!
And women do greatly worry about their breast size as proven by the huge amount of augmentation surgeries: according to American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, in 2006 383,336 women had a breast augmentation.
Most of my knowledge about breasts comes from movies and magazines. But actresses use body doubles to give the illusion of a more "perfect" body, and photographs of models have been airbrushed to remove any "unsightly" bumps or discoloration. ...
Three 14-year-old girls have told me separately that they need breast enlargement surgery, with nothing to base their body hatred on but a stolen copy of Playboy. ...
Allison Roberts at TERA articles page
"I would say most women are not happy [with their breasts]. I took a bunch of slides of women's breasts, as part of a slide show I put together, and every single woman who took off her shirt for me, had something to say, "Like, my breasts used to be great, but now they're saggy." Or, "I bet I've got the smallest breasts you've ever seen."
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Types and differences of breast cancer in men
There are several different types of breast cancer, but nearly all are considered adenocarcinomas because most develop in either the ducts or lobules, both of which are glandular tissue. Some cancers are followed by the words in situ, meaning the cancer is contained to a single area. If the cancer breaks through to the surrounding lobules or ducts, it is called infiltrating or invasive carcinoma. From there, the cancer can spread to blood vessels, lymph nodes and other parts of the breast. If not detected early, it can spread to other parts of the body resulting in a poorer prognosis.The staging of cancer is identical for men and women with breast cancer.
The most common types of breast cancer include:
Ductal carcinomas. Affecting the milk passages (ducts) of the breast. These are the most common breast cancers in both men and women. The two main types are:
Infiltrating (or invasive) ductal carcinoma (IDC). This is by far the most common in men, accounting for 80 to 90 percent of all male breast cancers, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). As the mass grows, it can lead to a dimpling of the breast or the nipple retracting inward.
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Also known as intraductal carcinoma or noninvasive ductal carcinoma, DCIS is an uncommon type of breast adenocarcinoma in men. It accounts for about 10 percent of male breast cancers, according the ACS.
Lobular carcinomas. Affecting the milk-producing glands (lobules). These are rarely seen in men since men’s breast tissue has ducts, but few lobules.
Inflammatory breast cancer. This form of the disease that has been diagnosed in men is highly malignant. Inflammatory breast cancer spreads rapidly, producing symptoms of swelling, redness and skin that is warm to the touch in the area of tumor involvement.
Paget's disease. This disease is slow-growing cancer of the areola and nipple. Paget’s disease eventually grows onto the nipple itself. It is sometimes mistaken for eczema as it can create itchiness or a crusty appearance around the nipple. According to the ACS, it accounts for about 1 percent of female breast cancers, but a higher percentage of male breast cancers. Because of the smaller size of the male breast, tumors are more likely to start relatively close to the nipple and/or spread to the nipple.
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