The breasts (also called mammae or mammary glands) are organs that produce milk to nourish newborn babies until they are old enough to get their nutrition from other foods. In humans they also have psychological and social significance as symbols of femininity and as a source of sexual pleasure.
Breast development
At around the age of 10 or 11 the nipple enlarges; the areola may darken and fat begins to accumulate under it, causing it to bulge. In boys this is all that happens, but in girls the breast continues to develop under the influence of hormones (oestrogen and progesterone) produced by the ovaries. Oestrogen stimulates the milk ducts to grow inwards into the tissue beneath and around the areola, where they divide into increasingly smaller ducts lined with special cells. These are the milk glands. At the same time fat is laid down around the developing glands and the breasts protrude more and more. The breast isn’t a symmetrical cone of tissue beneath the nipple; it has a tail that extends up into the armpit, which develops in the same way as the rest of the breast.
Breast size
A woman’s breasts continue to grow until about 17 or 18 years of age. It is the amount and arrangement of fat laid down in our breasts that determines their final shape and size. This, together with the size, shape and colour of the nipple and areola and the position of the breast on the chest wall, are inherited characteristics that account for every woman’s breasts being a bit different. Breasts may be large or small, conical or rounded, high or low and everything in between.
Nipples can vary just as much. They may be flat-topped, divided into two or more lobes at the tip, pointed, knobby (thicker at the top than at the base); they may protrude a little or a lot, or they may be inturned (inverted) and look more like a dimple. The areola may range from very pale pink to dark brown, may be a small or wide circle or oval, and it may not be symmetrical. All these variations are normal and don’t affect the ability to breastfeed.
No doubt you’ve noticed that your nipples and areolae look and feel different from time to time. As well as having a rich nerve supply (that makes them very sensitive), they contain many small blood vessels and tiny bundles of muscle tissue arranged in circles around the areola and radiating from the tip of the nipple to the outer border of the areola. In response to touch, cold and sexual arousal, the muscle contracts so that at first the areola becomes smaller and wrinkled and the nipple protrudes further (and inverted nipples usually emerge). Then the blood vessels become engorged so that the nipple and areola become swollen and warmer. This response helps during breast feeding by enabling the baby to get a good grip on the source of milk.
Though the greatest changes in breasts happen during puberty, further changes continue throughout life. Our breasts may become larger before periods, during pregnancy and breast-feeding, and with weight gain. Breasts may become smaller with weight loss, after breast-feeding and after the menopause.
How you feel about your breasts
Many women don’t like their breasts -they’re too big or too small, not firm enough, the nipples are the wrong colour or shape. Because our society focuses so much on women’s breasts as sex symbols, women may think they are less attractive because of their breasts. But the ‘ideal’ varies depending on whether you’re reading Penthouse or a high-fashion magazine, or whether you see Elle Macpherson or Mia Farrow as the model of an attractive woman. Society’s (and our own) attitudes to women and our breasts can affect how we feel about our bodies and our confidence in how others see us, and perhaps explain why breast problems and breast disease are more frightening to most of us than other health disorders.
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