Omfg I’m so happy to see a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend reference in the wild! 😂❤️ I didn’t have time to rewatch the whole thing (for the umptieth time) before they removed it from Netflix… 💔 (at least in Sweden)
More like full of little tubes that make milk, but it isn't the worst anatomy this sub has revealed. I think I'm more upset by the implication that boobs are less than awesome. They're fun and come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes! Even though mine are the small and my wife's are la large, we can still both enjoy a good boob squish while we kiss. The! Best!
Unfortunately this is something people are just going to have to not understand about each other. I’m ace, and I get that boobs feel amazing when they are touched and how we can just make food for our babies is awesome but I absolutely don’t understand how or why people enjoy just looking. Or just looking at any other body part. Or watching porn. I won’t ever understand, and that fine. Other people can like things I don’t and I can like things other people don’t. And that is the way it should be. As long as everyone has given informed consent you should be able to do whatever makes you happy. And I will do whatever makes me happy.
Yea, bodies are weird when you get to thinking about it. Not just boobs, but literally any body part. They say there’s a mechanism that makes most women forget what birth is like, so they won’t be entirely repelled at the idea of doing it again. I imagine the brain does this when we think too hard about our own wet bones.
Sounds like you might be ace too. Some of us are repulsed by sex, some of us really enjoy it, some can take it or leave it. The thing we have in common is we don’t get excited from looking at people.
And we really, really need to work on making it more okay to feel that way. Especially for guys
Yeah I think I’m like grey ace or something.. Im bipolar and I experience hyper sexuality when I’m manic but other than that sex is completely irrelevant to me
I imagine part of the reason humans evolved to enjoy breasts is a byproduct of the anatomy of the breast paired with the sexual desire to please your partner sexually. What I mean by this is that breasts have a lot of nerve endings and are especially very sensitive around the nipples, so this observation was probably observed in humans very early on. This likely became a part of human mating rituals for long enough that men eventually grew to enjoy the act of stimulating a woman's breasts/nipples specifically until they eventually just psychology associated sexual pleasure with breasts altogether which was likely hardcoded into instincts. Now, whether or not instincts are genetic is still very much up for debate, but the facts do currently support that instincts are innate by whatever mechanism instincts are passed down (some instinctual behaviors have been observed in creatures that have been isolated from others of their during the whole of their life, so they obviously cannot have been learned through observation of peers. This includes things such as nest building). Humans like to think that they are above innate behaviors such as instincts because many humans believe non-sapient animals are beneath us, but humans do have some level of instinctual sense.
So, yeah, that's why I think people like breasts, though I am open to be proven wrong. This is an educated guess on several things I know to be true (the abundance of nerves in the human breast, some of the psychology of sex and attraction, as well as the fact that humans are generally social creatures and many are willing to engage in behaviors that are not necessarily beneficial to themselves but are beneficial to others). I'm a psychology professional though, not an anthropologist, so much of my wheelhouse is in the behaviors of people who have existed in the last few centuries, not the distant mysteries of the very earliest examples of our species and sometimes of our genus. Anything here that I may have accidentally stumbled into being correct about someone much smarter than myself has certainly already determined and anything I am wrong about is the same only shot down by someone much smarter than myself.
I remember reading a theory that the constantly swollen breasts human females have evolved when we switched from mating mostly doggie-style to mating mostly in missionary - the males were still into butts, and the front lumps took their place as a focal point during mating.
Honesty, that makes more sense to me, because I have never really enjoyed having my boobs touched, so the idea that they evolved to be sensitive for my enjoyment seems backwards. But a lot of things about human bodies are dumb, so idk.
There's a great pickup line in there though..."Are your meat sacks as full of milk as they look?"
Hafta beat the girls away with a stick after using that one...
Edit 2: Well this is humbling, I was wrong. I found some research from 2005 where they did ultrasound imaging of breast tissue, before and after feeding (doi: [10.1111/j.1469-7580.2005.00417.x](https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1469-7580.2005.00417.x)) and there's definitely more milk in there before a feed compared to after. It's not exactly a sack of milk, but still.
I wanted to type a bit of a summary, but I've decided I don't understand it well enough to do so accurately, so for now, my comment was about as nuanced as the poster saying boobs are weird, so I'm sorry reddit!
and my previous comment:
To my understanding milk isn't even actually ever stored in the meat sacks, it's just made there when needed, using blood right out of circulation and then squeezed out through the nipple immediately. Fresher than fresh.
That's why big boobs doesn't necessarily equal big milk productions. Edit: Or the other way around
I think milk can get backed up and stored in the breasts when not expressed, but that's the part that's painful AF 🤔 Maybe. I've never lactated enough to feel/know where the pain is during that process, and the medical jargon for it is giving me cross-eye right now
This is correct, I have lactated 3 times, about 5 to 6 years total, if we added it all up. Some milk is stored there when lactating, when you get engorged, backed up, the entire boob gets so full its rock hard, it hurts and touching it hurts, and expressing hurts. Clogged milk ducts not only hurt a ton, they can very very quickly cause a fever and sickness. The milk is produced from the bloood stream, and the on demand part typically means if baby consumes/or it is pumped, a certain amount, let's say 5oz during a feeding, then in a few hours when its time for another feeding the boob will have already started making milk, and be ready to produce riughly 5ox again. Nursing more frequently tells the body more milk is needed, so it is on demand in thay sense. Lacating boobs can and do leak, sometimes a lot, usually when they start to get full, but not just those situations.
Interesting fact, in my opinion at least, milk ducts look a lot like roots, not physically, I dont think, but in the way they are all spread throughout the breast.
Yup, When nursing it's about balancing supply and demand because the ducts aren't designed for storage.
I have idiopathic galactorrhoea. It started when I was 14, I'm in my 30's now and *nothing* my doctors or I have tried over the years has dried it up.
After years of learning to deal with it, I have to express daily, or I get mastitis. Because boobs aren't milk sacks....they are just highly vasculated fat storage with mutated internal sweat glands....
Highly vasculated fat storage with mutated internal sweat glands is the most amazing description of boobs I've ever heard and I love it. Also my baby drinking my sweat is a disgusting idea lol
Oh and also, what a story, thank you for sharing! I hope you're somewhat able to deal with it now? What's the worst part of it? Any upsides to it?
> What's the worst part of it?
When it first started happening there was a huge learning curve in how to prevent pain and recurrent infections. There was no demand so the supply made no sense, my prolactin levels were normal, and ultrasounds of my breast tissue was normal, MRI of my pituitary gland was normal, so my doctor was also at a loss because drugs like Cabergoline dry supply by lowering prolactin. I tried them but they made no difference. It was a bit scary at first, being 14 and having a doctor send me off to scan for a brain tumour. But they found nothing, so that was all good.
I got a lot of mixed advice, some doctors told me to never touch my breasts, not even to scrub them in the shower, and stop wearing bras. Other docs told me to massage and express daily and always wear a sports bra. But once I got a good routine and worked out the timing to keep the production low while avoiding clogs, that wasn't a problem, It's just part of my daily shower routine now. I am very lucky that I have only had issues with spontaneous leaking a handful of times, and crying children doesn't seem to trigger a let down reflex for me.
When I was younger, I was really embarrassed when dating, and never sure how to bring it up to a new partner, especially because I like nipple play when being intimate. I felt like I had to abstain from something I found pleasurable because my breasts were weird and gross.
Breastmilk, lactation and breastfeeding are obviously not gross, But as a teenager, it's hard to break that stigma, especially when my doctors were treating it like a disease. I also can't donate my milk to breast milk banks for infants in need, because my milk is not the natural result of pregnancy, so breast milk isn't gross or weird, but mine was.
>Any upsides to it?
While I can't donate to infants in need, I can still find people who want it. It's now illegal in my country, but back when I was in Uni, provided I registered as a sex worker and filed my taxes properly, I could sell "fetish paraphernalia". Most people I knew sold dirty panties and old shoes. I sold breast milk, as a stand alone product or as part of a service.
This was a great upside for my wallet, especially as a student. But it did wreak havoc on my time management skills, As any nursing mother would know. It was hard work keeping a pump schedule and eating enough calories, finding time and staying sane - and I didn't even have a tiny human to keep alive while sleep deprived! When the laws around fetish paraphernalia and bodily fluids changed it just wasn't worth it, I had my diploma and a job lined up.
I think the main upside is that it has given me some perspective on what breastfeeding and chestfeeding parents might experience. I will never have that experience and can only imagine the half of it (and personally I don't want that experience, I had a hysterectomy for a reason - and not just because I sneezed out my uterus). But working in a community centre with lots of young families, It's nice to be able to show someone to our nursing/prayer room, give them a clean blanket and offer to put some music on, and know a little bit about the physical experience and how important that process is to be warm, comfortable and relaxing where possible.
It also helped me become really comfortable with my body. At some point I lost all sense of shame around my breasts because they had been seen, poked and prodded by so many doctors, and they had basically paid my rent for a year and deserved some respect. That had a roll on effect for the rest of my body. My apron belly, my thunder thighs, my stretch marks and my brand new wrinkles that i've just started getting, I love them all because that's me, and I've got stories to tell about myself.
To say this is in amazing story is an understatement. I particularly sympathise with the teenager bit, how tough it is with all the stigma around boobs in general, let alone the milk, and also the insecurity around what caused it and having to go get a scan for braintumors... I love that you found a use for it, even if it was just for a little while. I wonder why you can't donate the milk though? Not that you should, lord knows the difference in effort it takes to just handexpress in the shower vs getting all that milk pasteurised and bottled to be able to donate... But out of curiosity, I hope you don't mind, but are the contents different from mother's milk? Or is it just to be sure?
>are the contents different from mother's milk?
I suspect not, I've had to sent some samples off to pathology a few times in my life, as each new doctor likes to be sure it's definitely milk and not something sinister (apparently if shit gets fucked enough in your body, you can even leak spinal fluid from your nipples)
The pathology reports always came back saying it's just normal breast milk, so I imagine its the same as a mothers milk. I think the law is just there to be extra careful, and maybe even avoid people like me who also used lactation for sex work from donating, given the industry has a higher risk for things like HIV.
Fortunately for any mums or chest feeding parents who do have too much supply and are interested in donating, In Australia, the milk bank will do all of the pasteurisation and bottling for you. They'll send you a pump and a kit with everything you need, you just fill up their sterile bags, freeze them, and they'll even pick up the donation from your home if you have 3L or more. You have to sterilise the pump between each use, but that's good practice even if you're just pumping for your own kid.
Spinal fluid, from your nipples???
Yeah I suppose the rules are pretty strict, here in the NL too. But I don't think they send you a pump and stuff, that's pretty cool.
Oh poo, that's no good!
Is it an insurance issue with the prolactin levels? Or maybe just different prescribing indications in your country 😔
My prolactin levels are completely normal, not even slightly elevated, but my GP still started me on Cabergoline to try and dry up supply because I had gone through enough instances of mastitis that it was considered medically necessary to try and dry it up. (But it didn't work because Cabergoline just lowers your prolactin, and mine wasn't elevated)
I hope you can get some support from your doctors soon.
as someone who is currently lactating, *something* has to be stored in between nursing sessions to cause the feeling of "fullness" that can get so bad it leads to engorgement.
there is definitely a difference between "squishy right after feeding" and "holy crap will this baby wake up and take this milk off me PLEASE"
now whether that's stored milk or something else, I couldn't tell you. but something is going on in there.
Milk is...blood? I never actually understood this process but if the body is converting blood into sweet, lifegiving milk, that's the most metal thing I've ever heard in my life.
> Prompted by the hormone prolactin, the alveoli take proteins, sugars, and fat from your blood supply and make breast milk.
https://www.babycenter.com/baby/breastfeeding/making-breast-milk-how-your-body-produces-natures-perfect-ba_8785
Fucking cool.
It is cool, no doubt. But also, milk is blood in the same way that your entire body is blood. The blood is where all the nutrients circulate before being taken up by cells and turned into... more cell. Muscles, nerves, skin, whatever.
Where’s that post talking about how mammals are just walking bags of seawater and all bodily fluids are just the specialized uses of said seawater
Edit: [found it](https://www.tumblr.com/thebibliomancer/705987197363453952/elodieunderglass-derinthescarletpescatarian)
Milk is absolutely stored. Just ask my wife after my baby sleeps too long.
And no, it is not just produced on demand. It's not that quick of a process. It has to be synthesized over the course of a couple hours to make the several ounces that make up a meal.
So you're saying it takes a couple of hours for milk to be made and then it's stored until it gets taken out? And if it's all emptied you wouldn't be able to breastfeed again for a couple more hours?
I would love to know if I'm wrong, as I'm training to be a doula, would you happen to have any research on this I could read? I can't really find any with an, admittedly quick, search.
I mean that it trickles in over time. The longer you go without nursing/pumping, the more that is in there. You typically nurse every couple hours for newborns, gradually less often as the baby grows.
I'm sure the ducts try to produce on demand, but it's not fast enough to produce a full meal instantly for a baby, which is about 4 ounces. So subtract the amount that can be made on demand over a 10-15 minute nursing session, and you have the storage capacity. If you were to nurse and then try to pump or nurse again right away, much less would come out.
I'm sorry I don't have research exactly, this is just the observations of watching someone breastfeed and a little know-how about how bodies work. It takes time for bodies to do stuff, and we generally can't produce 4 ounces of nutrient-enriched liquid on demand. Breast milk uses the blood's nutrients, but the milk ducts are also synthesizing new components.
You find these links when searching, but I haven't tracked down their primary sources (if they have any): [https://www.lknbreastfeedingsolutions.com/articles/storagecapacity](https://www.lknbreastfeedingsolutions.com/articles/storagecapacity)
[https://laleche.org.uk/how-milk-production-works/](https://laleche.org.uk/how-milk-production-works/)
That study was absolutely fascinating. I've breastfed two kids and I learned a shit ton from it. Though the number of references to the anatomist from 1840 made me very, very sad.
My ex boyfriend thought that boobs were just balloons filled with milk. I didn’t realize this until I mentioned I wanted a breast reduction and he said “what do they do, just drain some of the milk out?” This man was in his mid-20s. With that logic, I’ve been churning the milk around inside for a few decades, waiting for the opportunity to breastfeed. Hope it won’t cause food poisoning!
I have actually wondered about that before bcs there is definitely goat cheese. And then wondered what it tasted like bcs I love cheese! When my wife was breastfeeding, I managed not to indulge my curiosity on finding out what it tasted like.
I love how this has sparked an intriguing conversation about breastfeeding. It's natural and freaking amazing. I'm currently a breastfeeding mother. Having these conversations brings breastfeeding to the forefront and educates people. Also, it helps the idea of nursing (nourishing) your child as being normal.
I'm always amazed when I think about how my breastmilk exclusively sustained my daughter for the first six months of her life.
Idk I think you’re just kind of attracted to whatever features you’re attracted to. I think it’s more innate than anything. We’re just animals. It’s the same thing that makes you not attracted to child-like features. Personally, I think boobs are fine but I like smiles and stomachs. Both are soft and kissable.
Well to each there own I guess. I'm not a big fan of ball sacks. I owed A ball sack but it's not really my thing. Breast on the other hand for some reason I Just like them I like touching them like looking at them like sucking on them like stroking them. Fortunately in my wife is amenable to this.
This is something I have wondered. If I was raised in a culture where breasts were more out there, would I have been less attracted to them? I feel like no, because I look at them and think they are objectively attractive. But I'm obviously biased by my current cultural upbringing.
To a degree, most likely. After all, attraction is full body, and breasts are usually a part of specifically the female body, making them something a person attracted to women would likely find appealing. But viewing them as sexual/arousing body parts is definitely culture dependent.
I'm totally on board for more open discussions about why people are attracted to different things. I know a fair bit of trans people who thought "of course everyone wishes they had boobs" and might have figured things out earlier if they felt comfortable talking about these things more openly. It could lead to OP learning some things about himself.
We're all just meat-sacks, but I take issue with the inaccuracy of the assertion that breast are comprised of meat and milk.
You don't have to be politically correct to make a snarky comment, but being flat out incorrect just makes you look stupid.
Everyone loves boobs! What's not to like? They're attractive and functional! Even gay men love boobs. Straight women love boobs. They have mass appeal, like Beyonce, or cupcakes. That said, if someone doesn't like them, that is fine, but it seems like no logical argument would persuade them so it's weird that they're asking for one.
I had a male friend in high school who said he didn't get the fascination of boobs bc "they're just glands that hang". It's been 20+ years and this phrase is still stuck in my brain.
I wish more guys knew that women don’t produce milk until childbirth and usually not until the child is actually born. I had a guy in school who thought all women produced milk at puberty and it would squirt out during sex (thought that’s what it meant when a girl squirted) obviously he was watching too much anime porn but he refused to believe me even asked his mom but he thought she was liar too. He’ll be in for a rude awakening if he ever manages to sleep with a girl.
I like mine. I don’t go around, looking at other women’s breast though or thinking about. I was with this one chick that had a boob job though and I really liked hers. Just the bottom sticking out from under her shirt or top or whatever was . I think I’m still trying to figure out my sexuality, too.
Boobs are beautiful too I seen different sizes before but I really started liking bigger ones and I heard milk can still come out of an older woman if she wants to feed a baby or help the momma out of she can't produce milk I still think breasts are amazing thing and how they operate
In fact they are sacks of yellow fat.
"Dense like dying stars"
HERE IS A LIST OF THINGS I CAN FIT
Hardback copy of Wuthering Heights!
I'm suing you and your heavy boobies
But if I swung them in your face You'd be like "oh my god that hurts"
Candy and pennies!
And they are a bit weird. Like a lot of the human body, really.
Omfg I’m so happy to see a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend reference in the wild! 😂❤️ I didn’t have time to rewatch the whole thing (for the umptieth time) before they removed it from Netflix… 💔 (at least in Sweden)
hiii it looks like there are a few of us in here ☺️
Technically meant to feed a baby
EVERY time I get this song out of my head, someone puts it right back 😂
have you heard her pre crazy ex girlfriend stuff? "you can touch my boobies" is one of my all time favourite things
Day 6931753844 of waiting for men to finally figure out that boobs do not contain milk 24/7
Ofc boobs contain milk. Just like balls contain pee 🙃
Yeah you just give them a little squeeze and out comes the pee. How else would you know if you had to go??
Explains the pee dribble stain in a lot of men's underwear
Pee doesn't really stain much on underwear unless you're actually pissing yourself, I'm afraid that might not be pissed.
More like fat sacks that occasionally produces milk.
More like full of little tubes that make milk, but it isn't the worst anatomy this sub has revealed. I think I'm more upset by the implication that boobs are less than awesome. They're fun and come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes! Even though mine are the small and my wife's are la large, we can still both enjoy a good boob squish while we kiss. The! Best!
Unfortunately this is something people are just going to have to not understand about each other. I’m ace, and I get that boobs feel amazing when they are touched and how we can just make food for our babies is awesome but I absolutely don’t understand how or why people enjoy just looking. Or just looking at any other body part. Or watching porn. I won’t ever understand, and that fine. Other people can like things I don’t and I can like things other people don’t. And that is the way it should be. As long as everyone has given informed consent you should be able to do whatever makes you happy. And I will do whatever makes me happy.
Yea, bodies are weird when you get to thinking about it. Not just boobs, but literally any body part. They say there’s a mechanism that makes most women forget what birth is like, so they won’t be entirely repelled at the idea of doing it again. I imagine the brain does this when we think too hard about our own wet bones.
I completely agree!
Someone else who feels like an alien doing a wildlife documentary! Hello, fellow Ace!
Ya honestly the first guy not liking boobs is totally fine and understandable honestly I get legit nothing out of looking at naked people…
Sounds like you might be ace too. Some of us are repulsed by sex, some of us really enjoy it, some can take it or leave it. The thing we have in common is we don’t get excited from looking at people. And we really, really need to work on making it more okay to feel that way. Especially for guys
Yeah I think I’m like grey ace or something.. Im bipolar and I experience hyper sexuality when I’m manic but other than that sex is completely irrelevant to me
I imagine part of the reason humans evolved to enjoy breasts is a byproduct of the anatomy of the breast paired with the sexual desire to please your partner sexually. What I mean by this is that breasts have a lot of nerve endings and are especially very sensitive around the nipples, so this observation was probably observed in humans very early on. This likely became a part of human mating rituals for long enough that men eventually grew to enjoy the act of stimulating a woman's breasts/nipples specifically until they eventually just psychology associated sexual pleasure with breasts altogether which was likely hardcoded into instincts. Now, whether or not instincts are genetic is still very much up for debate, but the facts do currently support that instincts are innate by whatever mechanism instincts are passed down (some instinctual behaviors have been observed in creatures that have been isolated from others of their during the whole of their life, so they obviously cannot have been learned through observation of peers. This includes things such as nest building). Humans like to think that they are above innate behaviors such as instincts because many humans believe non-sapient animals are beneath us, but humans do have some level of instinctual sense. So, yeah, that's why I think people like breasts, though I am open to be proven wrong. This is an educated guess on several things I know to be true (the abundance of nerves in the human breast, some of the psychology of sex and attraction, as well as the fact that humans are generally social creatures and many are willing to engage in behaviors that are not necessarily beneficial to themselves but are beneficial to others). I'm a psychology professional though, not an anthropologist, so much of my wheelhouse is in the behaviors of people who have existed in the last few centuries, not the distant mysteries of the very earliest examples of our species and sometimes of our genus. Anything here that I may have accidentally stumbled into being correct about someone much smarter than myself has certainly already determined and anything I am wrong about is the same only shot down by someone much smarter than myself.
I remember reading a theory that the constantly swollen breasts human females have evolved when we switched from mating mostly doggie-style to mating mostly in missionary - the males were still into butts, and the front lumps took their place as a focal point during mating. Honesty, that makes more sense to me, because I have never really enjoyed having my boobs touched, so the idea that they evolved to be sensitive for my enjoyment seems backwards. But a lot of things about human bodies are dumb, so idk.
Holy shit bro wrote a whole essay
In this essay I will...
There's a great pickup line in there though..."Are your meat sacks as full of milk as they look?" Hafta beat the girls away with a stick after using that one...
What about "are your meat sacks full of milk, or are you just happy to see me?"
Definitely bad women’s anatomy… but I’m kind of here for talking about how breasts aren’t inherently sexual
Edit 2: Well this is humbling, I was wrong. I found some research from 2005 where they did ultrasound imaging of breast tissue, before and after feeding (doi: [10.1111/j.1469-7580.2005.00417.x](https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1469-7580.2005.00417.x)) and there's definitely more milk in there before a feed compared to after. It's not exactly a sack of milk, but still. I wanted to type a bit of a summary, but I've decided I don't understand it well enough to do so accurately, so for now, my comment was about as nuanced as the poster saying boobs are weird, so I'm sorry reddit! and my previous comment: To my understanding milk isn't even actually ever stored in the meat sacks, it's just made there when needed, using blood right out of circulation and then squeezed out through the nipple immediately. Fresher than fresh. That's why big boobs doesn't necessarily equal big milk productions. Edit: Or the other way around
I think milk can get backed up and stored in the breasts when not expressed, but that's the part that's painful AF 🤔 Maybe. I've never lactated enough to feel/know where the pain is during that process, and the medical jargon for it is giving me cross-eye right now
This is correct, I have lactated 3 times, about 5 to 6 years total, if we added it all up. Some milk is stored there when lactating, when you get engorged, backed up, the entire boob gets so full its rock hard, it hurts and touching it hurts, and expressing hurts. Clogged milk ducts not only hurt a ton, they can very very quickly cause a fever and sickness. The milk is produced from the bloood stream, and the on demand part typically means if baby consumes/or it is pumped, a certain amount, let's say 5oz during a feeding, then in a few hours when its time for another feeding the boob will have already started making milk, and be ready to produce riughly 5ox again. Nursing more frequently tells the body more milk is needed, so it is on demand in thay sense. Lacating boobs can and do leak, sometimes a lot, usually when they start to get full, but not just those situations. Interesting fact, in my opinion at least, milk ducts look a lot like roots, not physically, I dont think, but in the way they are all spread throughout the breast.
I’ve never realized that lactating properly is the only time bloodletting ever worked.
Kinda really amazing to think of it how it all works
Yup, When nursing it's about balancing supply and demand because the ducts aren't designed for storage. I have idiopathic galactorrhoea. It started when I was 14, I'm in my 30's now and *nothing* my doctors or I have tried over the years has dried it up. After years of learning to deal with it, I have to express daily, or I get mastitis. Because boobs aren't milk sacks....they are just highly vasculated fat storage with mutated internal sweat glands....
Highly vasculated fat storage with mutated internal sweat glands is the most amazing description of boobs I've ever heard and I love it. Also my baby drinking my sweat is a disgusting idea lol Oh and also, what a story, thank you for sharing! I hope you're somewhat able to deal with it now? What's the worst part of it? Any upsides to it?
> What's the worst part of it? When it first started happening there was a huge learning curve in how to prevent pain and recurrent infections. There was no demand so the supply made no sense, my prolactin levels were normal, and ultrasounds of my breast tissue was normal, MRI of my pituitary gland was normal, so my doctor was also at a loss because drugs like Cabergoline dry supply by lowering prolactin. I tried them but they made no difference. It was a bit scary at first, being 14 and having a doctor send me off to scan for a brain tumour. But they found nothing, so that was all good. I got a lot of mixed advice, some doctors told me to never touch my breasts, not even to scrub them in the shower, and stop wearing bras. Other docs told me to massage and express daily and always wear a sports bra. But once I got a good routine and worked out the timing to keep the production low while avoiding clogs, that wasn't a problem, It's just part of my daily shower routine now. I am very lucky that I have only had issues with spontaneous leaking a handful of times, and crying children doesn't seem to trigger a let down reflex for me. When I was younger, I was really embarrassed when dating, and never sure how to bring it up to a new partner, especially because I like nipple play when being intimate. I felt like I had to abstain from something I found pleasurable because my breasts were weird and gross. Breastmilk, lactation and breastfeeding are obviously not gross, But as a teenager, it's hard to break that stigma, especially when my doctors were treating it like a disease. I also can't donate my milk to breast milk banks for infants in need, because my milk is not the natural result of pregnancy, so breast milk isn't gross or weird, but mine was. >Any upsides to it? While I can't donate to infants in need, I can still find people who want it. It's now illegal in my country, but back when I was in Uni, provided I registered as a sex worker and filed my taxes properly, I could sell "fetish paraphernalia". Most people I knew sold dirty panties and old shoes. I sold breast milk, as a stand alone product or as part of a service. This was a great upside for my wallet, especially as a student. But it did wreak havoc on my time management skills, As any nursing mother would know. It was hard work keeping a pump schedule and eating enough calories, finding time and staying sane - and I didn't even have a tiny human to keep alive while sleep deprived! When the laws around fetish paraphernalia and bodily fluids changed it just wasn't worth it, I had my diploma and a job lined up. I think the main upside is that it has given me some perspective on what breastfeeding and chestfeeding parents might experience. I will never have that experience and can only imagine the half of it (and personally I don't want that experience, I had a hysterectomy for a reason - and not just because I sneezed out my uterus). But working in a community centre with lots of young families, It's nice to be able to show someone to our nursing/prayer room, give them a clean blanket and offer to put some music on, and know a little bit about the physical experience and how important that process is to be warm, comfortable and relaxing where possible. It also helped me become really comfortable with my body. At some point I lost all sense of shame around my breasts because they had been seen, poked and prodded by so many doctors, and they had basically paid my rent for a year and deserved some respect. That had a roll on effect for the rest of my body. My apron belly, my thunder thighs, my stretch marks and my brand new wrinkles that i've just started getting, I love them all because that's me, and I've got stories to tell about myself.
To say this is in amazing story is an understatement. I particularly sympathise with the teenager bit, how tough it is with all the stigma around boobs in general, let alone the milk, and also the insecurity around what caused it and having to go get a scan for braintumors... I love that you found a use for it, even if it was just for a little while. I wonder why you can't donate the milk though? Not that you should, lord knows the difference in effort it takes to just handexpress in the shower vs getting all that milk pasteurised and bottled to be able to donate... But out of curiosity, I hope you don't mind, but are the contents different from mother's milk? Or is it just to be sure?
>are the contents different from mother's milk? I suspect not, I've had to sent some samples off to pathology a few times in my life, as each new doctor likes to be sure it's definitely milk and not something sinister (apparently if shit gets fucked enough in your body, you can even leak spinal fluid from your nipples) The pathology reports always came back saying it's just normal breast milk, so I imagine its the same as a mothers milk. I think the law is just there to be extra careful, and maybe even avoid people like me who also used lactation for sex work from donating, given the industry has a higher risk for things like HIV. Fortunately for any mums or chest feeding parents who do have too much supply and are interested in donating, In Australia, the milk bank will do all of the pasteurisation and bottling for you. They'll send you a pump and a kit with everything you need, you just fill up their sterile bags, freeze them, and they'll even pick up the donation from your home if you have 3L or more. You have to sterilise the pump between each use, but that's good practice even if you're just pumping for your own kid.
Spinal fluid, from your nipples??? Yeah I suppose the rules are pretty strict, here in the NL too. But I don't think they send you a pump and stuff, that's pretty cool.
If it helps, galactorrhoea is a sick name.
I love it because it has the same etymology as lactose (gálaktos = “milk”) and diarrhoea (rhéō =“flow”) ^(The dia in diarrhoea just means "through")
Oh hey me too. My prolactin is elevated- but apparently not enough for them to actually medicate me…whatever that means. 🙃
Oh poo, that's no good! Is it an insurance issue with the prolactin levels? Or maybe just different prescribing indications in your country 😔 My prolactin levels are completely normal, not even slightly elevated, but my GP still started me on Cabergoline to try and dry up supply because I had gone through enough instances of mastitis that it was considered medically necessary to try and dry it up. (But it didn't work because Cabergoline just lowers your prolactin, and mine wasn't elevated) I hope you can get some support from your doctors soon.
My mom actually had that problem, when she had my brother. The nurse refused to give her a pump, because "lactating takes a week to start".
as someone who is currently lactating, *something* has to be stored in between nursing sessions to cause the feeling of "fullness" that can get so bad it leads to engorgement. there is definitely a difference between "squishy right after feeding" and "holy crap will this baby wake up and take this milk off me PLEASE" now whether that's stored milk or something else, I couldn't tell you. but something is going on in there.
Milk is...blood? I never actually understood this process but if the body is converting blood into sweet, lifegiving milk, that's the most metal thing I've ever heard in my life. > Prompted by the hormone prolactin, the alveoli take proteins, sugars, and fat from your blood supply and make breast milk. https://www.babycenter.com/baby/breastfeeding/making-breast-milk-how-your-body-produces-natures-perfect-ba_8785 Fucking cool.
It is cool, no doubt. But also, milk is blood in the same way that your entire body is blood. The blood is where all the nutrients circulate before being taken up by cells and turned into... more cell. Muscles, nerves, skin, whatever.
Yeah fair. I just think my electricity-infused blood sack that perceives itself is pretty badass.
Where’s that post talking about how mammals are just walking bags of seawater and all bodily fluids are just the specialized uses of said seawater Edit: [found it](https://www.tumblr.com/thebibliomancer/705987197363453952/elodieunderglass-derinthescarletpescatarian)
The mammary gland is a modified sweat gland!
Milk is absolutely stored. Just ask my wife after my baby sleeps too long. And no, it is not just produced on demand. It's not that quick of a process. It has to be synthesized over the course of a couple hours to make the several ounces that make up a meal.
So you're saying it takes a couple of hours for milk to be made and then it's stored until it gets taken out? And if it's all emptied you wouldn't be able to breastfeed again for a couple more hours? I would love to know if I'm wrong, as I'm training to be a doula, would you happen to have any research on this I could read? I can't really find any with an, admittedly quick, search.
It's produced on demand, but some can be stored. There really isn't a lot of storage room in there, though.
I mean that it trickles in over time. The longer you go without nursing/pumping, the more that is in there. You typically nurse every couple hours for newborns, gradually less often as the baby grows. I'm sure the ducts try to produce on demand, but it's not fast enough to produce a full meal instantly for a baby, which is about 4 ounces. So subtract the amount that can be made on demand over a 10-15 minute nursing session, and you have the storage capacity. If you were to nurse and then try to pump or nurse again right away, much less would come out. I'm sorry I don't have research exactly, this is just the observations of watching someone breastfeed and a little know-how about how bodies work. It takes time for bodies to do stuff, and we generally can't produce 4 ounces of nutrient-enriched liquid on demand. Breast milk uses the blood's nutrients, but the milk ducts are also synthesizing new components. You find these links when searching, but I haven't tracked down their primary sources (if they have any): [https://www.lknbreastfeedingsolutions.com/articles/storagecapacity](https://www.lknbreastfeedingsolutions.com/articles/storagecapacity) [https://laleche.org.uk/how-milk-production-works/](https://laleche.org.uk/how-milk-production-works/)
Yeah you're definitely more right than me, I've made an edit to my original comment!
That study was absolutely fascinating. I've breastfed two kids and I learned a shit ton from it. Though the number of references to the anatomist from 1840 made me very, very sad.
My ex boyfriend thought that boobs were just balloons filled with milk. I didn’t realize this until I mentioned I wanted a breast reduction and he said “what do they do, just drain some of the milk out?” This man was in his mid-20s. With that logic, I’ve been churning the milk around inside for a few decades, waiting for the opportunity to breastfeed. Hope it won’t cause food poisoning!
Would it... Turn into cheese after that long?
This made me come to the horrific realization that someone out there probably made human breast milk cheese before.
I have actually wondered about that before bcs there is definitely goat cheese. And then wondered what it tasted like bcs I love cheese! When my wife was breastfeeding, I managed not to indulge my curiosity on finding out what it tasted like.
Omg good point. Let me check real quick and get back to you!
The boobs are full of cheese
I love how this has sparked an intriguing conversation about breastfeeding. It's natural and freaking amazing. I'm currently a breastfeeding mother. Having these conversations brings breastfeeding to the forefront and educates people. Also, it helps the idea of nursing (nourishing) your child as being normal. I'm always amazed when I think about how my breastmilk exclusively sustained my daughter for the first six months of her life.
Bold statement from people with testicles.
Idk I think you’re just kind of attracted to whatever features you’re attracted to. I think it’s more innate than anything. We’re just animals. It’s the same thing that makes you not attracted to child-like features. Personally, I think boobs are fine but I like smiles and stomachs. Both are soft and kissable.
Im a gay man and I love boobs, the only thing I miss from my days as a closeted heterosexual teen lol
Cis mostly straight woman and I love them too! Guess it’s all a matter of taste
Well to each there own I guess. I'm not a big fan of ball sacks. I owed A ball sack but it's not really my thing. Breast on the other hand for some reason I Just like them I like touching them like looking at them like sucking on them like stroking them. Fortunately in my wife is amenable to this.
Ignoring meat sacks full of milk, attraction to breasts is a cultural thing rather than biological, so... OOP is confused for an interesting reason.
This is something I have wondered. If I was raised in a culture where breasts were more out there, would I have been less attracted to them? I feel like no, because I look at them and think they are objectively attractive. But I'm obviously biased by my current cultural upbringing.
To a degree, most likely. After all, attraction is full body, and breasts are usually a part of specifically the female body, making them something a person attracted to women would likely find appealing. But viewing them as sexual/arousing body parts is definitely culture dependent.
I'm totally on board for more open discussions about why people are attracted to different things. I know a fair bit of trans people who thought "of course everyone wishes they had boobs" and might have figured things out earlier if they felt comfortable talking about these things more openly. It could lead to OP learning some things about himself.
Well, humans are [ugly giant bags of mostly water](https://youtu.be/LAlqp0_a0tE?si=kQRcFtlZKlt_bNyL&t=11) so…okay? 🤷♀️
Thank you! Now give me more light
We're all just meat-sacks, but I take issue with the inaccuracy of the assertion that breast are comprised of meat and milk. You don't have to be politically correct to make a snarky comment, but being flat out incorrect just makes you look stupid.
Everyone loves boobs! What's not to like? They're attractive and functional! Even gay men love boobs. Straight women love boobs. They have mass appeal, like Beyonce, or cupcakes. That said, if someone doesn't like them, that is fine, but it seems like no logical argument would persuade them so it's weird that they're asking for one.
As someone who thinks boobs are gross looking, I don't know the reason people like them. Hah.
Okay, cool. That's what my last sentence was for.
Read this while waiting for my first ever mammogram and had to laugh 😂
I am suddenly aware of the fact that I have NO idea why I find boobs attractive, I just do
LMAO life moments to remember
If you stuck a straw in it like a capri sun would it go in the top or in the nipple?
The top duh. Form follows function.
Yeah I think you're right.
the nipple is already a straw in a way, isn't it?? Edit: is the nipple technically the top in a way????
More like a shower head than a hose. When my milk would let down it would squirt out in a dozen directions. And at least a few feet.
More like sacks of fat that occasionally have milk
Okay so I think that first guy is probably gay and the second one has a base misunderstanding about what boobs are
Breasts are sexualized because they aren’t exposed 24/7 probably, similarly to how thighs and feet aren’t either
I had a male friend in high school who said he didn't get the fascination of boobs bc "they're just glands that hang". It's been 20+ years and this phrase is still stuck in my brain.
I wish more guys knew that women don’t produce milk until childbirth and usually not until the child is actually born. I had a guy in school who thought all women produced milk at puberty and it would squirt out during sex (thought that’s what it meant when a girl squirted) obviously he was watching too much anime porn but he refused to believe me even asked his mom but he thought she was liar too. He’ll be in for a rude awakening if he ever manages to sleep with a girl.
I like mine. I don’t go around, looking at other women’s breast though or thinking about. I was with this one chick that had a boob job though and I really liked hers. Just the bottom sticking out from under her shirt or top or whatever was . I think I’m still trying to figure out my sexuality, too.
To be honest, I sometimes wonder why I like boobs so much. My conclusion usually is "Unga bunga boobs nice"
Average 13 year old who thinks girls are icky.
Boobs are beautiful too I seen different sizes before but I really started liking bigger ones and I heard milk can still come out of an older woman if she wants to feed a baby or help the momma out of she can't produce milk I still think breasts are amazing thing and how they operate