Breast Cancer

Lesson 1: ALL ABOUT BREASTS: Risks, Myths & BSE

What Do You Really Know About Breasts?

Breast tissue begins to form in the 6th week of fetal development. Then, nothing really happens until puberty - when a girl begins to have pubic hair, breasts grow and she begins menstruation, or gets her period.

The next major change in breasts occurs during pregnancy. The breasts can then produce milk. The last change that happens to breast tissue is when you finally stop having a period: menopause. The hormones in your body change and your breasts may feel super-sensitive (similar to the sensation many women get prior to their period) and finally, the breast tissue becomes less dense. Doesn't sound terribly exciting, does it? But then again, what do we really consider a "normal" breast?

Breasts come in small, medium, large, super-size and your breast size is based on heredity. Breast tissue forms about 2/3 of the breast with fat making up the final 1/3. So, if you gain weight, your breasts will grow a bit and if you lose weight, they will shrink a bit. Basically, they remain the same. No one has naturally perfect breasts. Most women have one breast a bit larger than the other (just like you have one foot, one arm bigger than the other). The breast tissue starts all the way up at your collarbone and goes down to your ribs. It goes horizontally from your breastbone in the center of your body to way back under your armpit, or axilla.

The darker area around the nipple is called the areola. This can range in shade from pink to brown to black, depending usually on your ethnicity and coloring. The areola usually darkens after pregnancy. The color also changes during sexual arousal and orgasm. There are hair follicles around the nipple and it is perfectly normal to have a few hairs growing there. If they bother you, you can shave them, tweeze them. If not, just leave them alone. It's just another area of your body where hair grows.

You may also notice, if you look carefully, that your nipples are probably not perfectly centered. Most nipples face out a bit. This is nature's way of preparing for breastfeeding by infants. If the nipple was directly in the center of your breast, how would your baby get his/her mouth around it unless you turned your whole body sideways?

Another concern for some women are the tiny bumps around the nipple area (areola) that look like pimples or goosebumps. These are really glands, known as Montgomery glands. The other small openings you may notice are sebaceous glands. You have these all over your body. They secrete a white, oily fluid and are perfectly normal.

So now that you know that whatever breasts you have are just right for you, let's look at the inner workings of the breast. The breast has veins and arteries just like other parts of your anatomy. The breast also has milk ducts. There are usually about 6-10 milk ducts on the nipple, with about 3 near the center. These allow a woman to breast feed.

If you look at the drawing of the breast, you will notice that the pectoral, or chest wall muscle, is way behind the rest of the breast. So, there really isn't much muscle in the breast itself. It's mostly breast tissue interwoven with fat tissue. So, exercising might give you a better figure all around, but it won't do anything for the breast itself.

Now that we've gone over the details of your breast anatomy, I'd like you to stop and think back for a minute. What do you first remember about your breast development? Were you afraid when those tiny little breast buds showed up on your chest? Did you think this was a sign of becoming a woman? Please share your thoughts. For me, it was a bra that symbolized growing up. I was younger than most of the girls in my class and much tinier overall. I swear they all had size 38D chests and I was just beginning to develop. I can remember when my mom pulled out the Sears catalog and told me it was time to order a bra. I was so proud!

Thinking about it now, I have to laugh. I went through my college years in the late 60s-early 70s and was into the "Burn the Bra" mode. But when I was 11, having a bra was a significant rite of passage for me.

http://ohsuhealth.com/breast/normal.asp

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