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I’ve seen postings recently in a feminist forum about tuberous breasts, and whether one would be justified in having plastic surgery to improve them. The woman who initiated the discussion said she wanted to have the procedure to fix her tubular breasts, but felt bad about it. As a feminist, she said she felt “angry” that she was longing for surgery and even that she “wanted to die at the thought.”
If there ever were a condition that might drive a woman who thinks that “plastic surgery, on the whole, is ridiculous” to go under the knife, tuberous breasts would be a good candidate. Named for the fact that the breasts resemble tubers in shape, tuberous breasts (sometimes called “tubular breasts”) are formed when the base of the breast is smaller than usual. This constricted circumference causes the breast tissue to push forward and sometimes down, exacerbated by the fact that the inframammary fold (where the breast attaches to the chest wall) is often higher than normal.
Women with tuberous breasts usually have large areolas as well. When all these factors are present, it’s easy to see why one of the nicknames for this condition is “Snoopy breasts.” Although you may consider the famous Beagle adorable, you probably don’t want to have breasts that remind you of his nose.
In most cases, to create breasts that are more pleasing in appearance requires a bit more work than simply inserting implants. Plastic surgeons often need to make internal incisions to release constricting tissue and expand the base width of the breast. The breast pocket may need enlarging to accept an appropriate implant. Because women with tuberous breasts often have scant breast tissue, it’s often best to place implants below the chest muscle for a natural looking result. For this group of patients, silicone gel breast implants should be considered, as they tend to hold their shape well.
The feminist whose posting I read said that her tuberous breasts were “self esteem shattering” and that she always kept her bra on while having sex. In my view, those feelings are reason enough to feel ok about considering plastic surgery, regardless of which body part is the culprit and how “cosmetic” the procedure might be. In fact, body image is the key. If you happen to have tuberous breasts and aren’t bothered by them, great.
But this woman, who obviously does suffer significant embarrassment, can take comfort in the fact that tuberous breasts are considered to be a true deformity. Dictionaries define “deformity” as a part of the body that’s abnormally formed, “abnormal” meaning not usual or typical, deviating from what’s considered standard. What would you do if you were born with a cleft palate? Webbed fingers? You’d probably have surgery to fix the condition. And you’d probably feel a great sense of relief that you took the plunge.
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You know, I have the same thing...and I didn't know what it was until college. I was 23 before I let a guy see my breasts. He didn't care at all. I think that most guys are just like "woohoo boobs!"...they don't get all analytical about their shape. I still occasionally feel like I'm letting guys down, by not having "normal" breasts, but I have yet to meet a man who cares. I do sometimes wish that mine were shaped more like the breasts of most women...but my breasts are to feed my future babies, not to conform to some ideal of aesthetic perfection. Also, I had cancer, and after going through chemo, I would never even consider messing with my body now. Our bodies are actually pretty awesome the way they are. Mine was able to heal itself after having poison pumped into it. It was amazing to feel myself heal after each chemo, and become strong again. I'm not telling anyone not to have surgery, because it's not my choice to make...but as for me, I'm happy just the way I am, alive and healthy. :)
October 8, 2009 - 10:04pmThis Comment
I have tuberous beast defect, and it is a very dewomanizing condition. I have felt awful about myself for years and hope desperately to one day have a correctional surgery. Knowing from experience how horrifying this condtion can be, I don't think any woman should feel bad about wanting the surgery, and if I had the money I would do it in a heart beat with no reservations.
September 12, 2009 - 8:05amThis Comment
Congratulations to anonymous above (28yo). I think you've said what many of us feel...the surgery is not for anyone else and it is not about having big breasts that you can flaunt. But rather a surgery for yourself and yourself alone. I hope your spirits continue to soar.
September 1, 2009 - 10:45amThis Comment
I am 28 years old and after 10 years of being made to feel stupid by my GP, and being told that there was nothing wrong with me, I was last year finally diagnosed with tuberous breasts. THis was due to the fact that I built up the guts to see a private surgeon who immediately said I had a real condition and referred me to the NHS. I have stage 3 which is quite serious. I had the first part of the operation in october to fit expanders and yesterday I had my second op to finish things off. I am also educated, I am a solicitor and also in an extremly happy relationship. I had the surgery for no one other than myself and it has all been worth it. I do not plan to run along the street topless or dress any differently than before but I can honestly say that I had the best nights sleep for 10 years last night. I woke up smiling knowing that finally someone listened and fixed me. I had an amazing NHS surgeon and cannot sing his praises or having the proceedure, enough.
August 29, 2009 - 5:15amThis Comment
This is such a personal topic that there can never be one anwser. On the one hand I agree that anyone who doesn't accept you the way you are isn't worth your time. But on the other hand, when a woman's self esteem is so tightly bonded to this issue then surely having them reconstructed is not such a bad thing. I don't believe that fake breasts are more attractive than real ones, but rather that implants provide a solution for some women to have a more 'normal' shaped breast. In turn improving their self esteem and outlook on life. In my personal case I would consider the surgery to improve the way I feel about myself and allow me a new lease on life. Those of you who have been lucky enough to find loving and accepting partners, I feel happy for you. But to those of us who have been left feeling insecure and sometimes humiliated by people's reactions I say do what feels right.
August 26, 2009 - 3:33pmThis Comment
I'm not a plastic surgery lobbyist, though I believe some readers may think I am. The only reason I've written about it so much is I have learned more than the average layperson about the topic from a writing role I used to have.
When I first started writing about plastic surgery a few years ago, the idea of electing a procedure simply to improve form (not function) of a body part was a bit foreign to me as well. But after talking to many patients and physicians about it, a couple of things moderated my feelings a bit. First, I learned that plastic surgery is generally very safe and routine, especially when a physician who is board certified in plastic surgery is at the helm. Second, I found out so many people feel so much more satisfied with their appearance after surgery--relieved, pleased, even joyful. Just imagine having a dream come true. Not a dream of having outlandishly huge breasts, or the one I read today in which a woman has had dozens of surgeries so she can look like Nefertiti (I kid you not). But a simple dream of having a nose that doesn't dominate your face so much that people remark on it. Or reducing the size of 4D breasts on a petite, 5' 3" body. Talk about a new lease on life!
These days I believe that how a person feels about herself is everything. In fact, I think it's probably the leading factor in how womens' partners feel about plastic surgery. I know my husband doesn't feel I need it--he loves me the way I am and it would never occur to him that I should change myself. But if I wanted surgery for good reasons, and convinced him that it would improve my outlook on my own life (even if implants were involved), he would say "go for it."
In my experience, most men worth anything indeed won't care if you have tuberous breasts. They also won't care if you have implants. What they will care about--and respond to intimately--is that you feel good about yourself. And that's what you should care about, feeling good about yourself. Surgery's right for some, not for others. Do what's right for you.
August 25, 2009 - 6:58pmThis Comment
I completley agree with the lady who said that you can't just throw the word "deformity" out there. At the age of 12 when i finally grew breats I was ecstatic. I loved them, to me they were just my breasts. I knew they were different from my friends. but aren't we all taught in school that all breasts are shaped different? So i didn't worry. I knew they weren't my best feature: but i compared them to the same aspect of having a large nose or crooked teeth or huge feet( you get what u get, everyone has that one feature that isn't their favorite). DEFINITELY NOT A DEFORMITY. It wasn't untill i was at my grandmother's and she was teasing me about not having boobs. So I proudly took off my shirt to proove her wrong. SHE BURST INTO LAUGHTER!!!!( my own grandmother) I was damaged emotionally from then on out. There i was standing akwardly bare chested with tears streaming down my cheeks I kept thinking if my grandma laughed what would a boy do. I hadn't even reached my adolescence and all my dreams and hopes were smashed. I became a different person that day. I cast my ownself out, I was ashamed, I hated myself, I hated my parents, and I hated God for making me such a "freak". The horrible thing about all of this is is that I grew up with no mother, being raised by my father was akward enough, so I couldn't talk to him about it. Soon after I started visiting doctors, who all said I was normal. They told me they were just breasts and mine just happened to look like that. LOTS OF GYNOCOLOGISTS TOLD ME THAT. NOT ONE DOCTOR TOLD ME THEY WERE "DEFORMED". They are aslo apparantly not that uncommon because my best friend had breasts just like mine, she was just next door. I couldn't help but think if she had them and was only a door away, who else in my town did. Then I found out my second cousin had the same damn thing. I got a seventeen magazine a few years later and my breasts were in it. But not in the normal section, but in the "deformed" section. So there I was again feeling like the biggest freak in the world. I took the article to my doctor who once again told me that my breasts were normal and never take advice from a beauty magazine. That wasn't enough for me I began to do my own research, and found this condition. " tubular breasts". a few years later I begged my father to take me to a plastic surgeon who pretty much told me I was deformed and that i needed breast implants to make me happy. It was the most humiliating day of llife. (my father sitting right there) i couldn't help but think how my father would react if he were to see a pair of breast like mine when he were younger. I was sssoooooo ashamed and kept thinking my dad probably thought I was such a freak. You could never imagine the pain I felt that day. the worst pain I've ever felt. My heart litterally felt like it had shattered in my chest. So guess what. I got the breast implants and guess what else I'm not happy, and I regret it to my core. not because they look bad, THEY LOOK AWESOME but because it was stupid. See it's sort of funny to me that all of my gyno's told me that they were normal and that he see's all kinds of random breasts. It's also sort of funny to me that there isn't very much information on somthing like this if it's such a problem, and the most ironic thing of all is that insurance DID NOT cover it. The only people that have said I was deformed were plastic surgeons. How is something like this a condition if it's not known why it is condition? What makes it a condtion? That your breasts grow that shape? Because there is a possibility that you can't breast feed? Lot of women WITHOUT this so called deformity can't breast feed. You shouldn't throw around the word deformity and call it a condition if there is barely any info on it. Is society going to start calling people with large noses deformed a well? I'm not depressed because my breasts looked this way, I ANGRY AND DEPRESSED BECAUSE IM FORCED TO BE PUT UNDER A CATEGORY CALL "DEFROMED". I AM BEYOND ANGRY. if this is a condtion I want more answers and more information before doctors and society start labeling an appearance as condtion or deformity, when they themselve harldey know anything about it. P.S. I hate these implants most umcomfortable things in the world.
June 30, 2011 - 3:27pmThis Comment
I am also a woman with tuberous breasts and feel bad for somebody like the person who posted above. I certainly don't feel "abnormal", no more so than my friend with a big nose, or my other friend who is bow-legged. Sure, we all want to improve ourselves, and it would be nice to find a (hormonal/systemic) cure that would make tuberous breasts grow naturally to look more like what we expect breasts to look like but to date no such treatment exists. What I can't understand is how you think having a foreign object, i.e. silicone/saline blob inside you will make you normal. That is what always stopped me from having the surgery. I have had many boyfriends and I have been upfront about myself, often before anything intimate occurred. And guess what? Nobody cared and I have had some great relationships. If it's all about being attractive to men,before you have that surgery why don't you check what the stats are on men's opinions on implants. In my experience, most men worth anything think implants are pretty disgusting. I think my husband said it best. He said he by far preferred my breasts the way they were because they were NATURAL and he "would be grossly turned off knowing (I) had a purposeless foreign object inside (me)". The point is,an implant is not a prosthetic leg or steel hip that helps you function, it's a blob of pointless yuck wedged under your skin that makes your chest stick out more. That's it! If you think that makes you sexy, appealing or normal I think you have more problems than you think you do. it's not the same as "pinning back your ears" or "removing a mole", neither of which leave a fake object pretending to be a natural body part. While I firmly believe women should absolutely do what they want to their bodies, my point is that you may be "solving" what you think is one problem (being rejected for having tuberous breasts), only to replace it for another (being rejected for having fake ones). Sometimes the "Cure" is worse than the "disease". p.s. I fully expect some plastic surgery lobbyist to respond to my post negatively but hopefully intelligent readers will see right through that.
August 25, 2009 - 6:08pmThis Comment
i think tuberous breasts are drop dead sexy/ turn on. Its so hard to find a gal with them... which makes them a greater prize for a woman to have. Why the hell would you want to be a cooky cutter... be the cook.
October 3, 2011 - 9:57amThis Comment
I just cried. I just read this artice, and read the comments, and I got to yours and everything kind of became clear to me.Thank you so much. I am very young, and I just found out I have tuberous breasts. I was wondering why I looked different and I was freaking out about how I might need surgery to look "Normal". But you are right, everyone is different and everyone is beautiful. I personally don't want implants, I want to be natural. I am usually a confident young woman, and I have been really self conscious lately, so thank oh so much for this comment. xo
August 2, 2010 - 12:12amThis Comment