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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.
Add a Comment127 Comments
So-called 'Tubular Breasts' are not a deformity! They're just another shape of breast and just as beautiful as other shapes of breasts. Talking to a group of male friends recently and 5 out of 6 of us find this type of breast very sexy.
September 4, 2012 - 5:07amThis Comment
I'm 20 and just literally found out i have tubular breasts. since i was little i knew my purpose was to be a mother and everything i've done and everything i'm doing is leading me to that time in my life where i know i will be happiest. i am in tears. i am devestated and terrified that i might not be able to breastfeed my children. i don't even know who to talk to about this. i want to say that i love myself completely, but what if i can't provide for my children?? for me it's not even a matter of a different appearance anymore. i'm so scared :( i want to love myself the way i am, but right now i would much rather have teeny teeny breasts rather than teeny teeny tubular breasts :(
August 23, 2010 - 9:56pmThis Comment
I too have tuberous breasts and my fiancee does not care and he loves me and my breasts the way they are, but the fact of the matter is that I do not love them the way they are. I want more than anything to have my areolas reduced, and it is nice that you don't care about the way your breasts are shaped or look, but I feel disgusted by myself, and if my fiancee ever told me he would be digusted by me for having this deformation corrected I would tell him that he agreed to love me and support me no matter what. If it bothers me and I want it fixed then he should stand behind my decision. I think your idea about the corrective surgery is greatly skewed and I am very surprised to hear that you have this condition. You must have a mild case because I would never be able to just not care that my areola sticks out nearly two and 1/2 inches beyond the actual base of the breast and the fact that I can only wear padded bras becuase you can see it through my shirt if I don't, or the fact that you can tell if I wear a swimsuit that I have a breast defect, so I cannot even bring myself to go swimming. I am very shocked by your answer to this discussion, and I think that although you say women have the right to do what they want with their bodies, you ridicule women who want the surgery and tell them that they are fake and disgusting if they do it.
September 12, 2009 - 8:18amThis Comment
The honest truth is, I have had the corrective surgery, and I do have a tiny amount of capsular contracture in my left breast, which makes it a little firmer than the right one. In spite of feeling a little bit self-conscious about the firmness of that breast, it is infinitely better than the feeling of being 'damaged' that I had before my bilateral tuberous breasts were corrected. To those who have this condition and feel great about yourselves: I admire you for your self-acceptance, but please stop judging those of us who never reached that point. I accept my crooked teeth, my nearly legally-blind eyes, my frizzy hair, my bunions (although I did have the most painful one of those repaired), and all of my other oddities. Those oddities are things I have seen on other people I know. This one was different because I was the ONLY person growing up that I knew of who had it. THAT's what causes the feeling of being freakish. There are many factors in the world that got us all to where we are, and we're all dealing with the world in the manner we can. Good luck to all.
February 13, 2010 - 5:38amThis Comment
If you feel good about it, that's great. But I do want to point something out.
Teeth are right out there in the open. If all of your friends with tubular breasts are ashamed and won't show them, and you're seeing a lot of what society has deemed to be a normal breast in the media, and your friends with "normal" breasts (when compared to breasts you see in the media) are the only ones who aren't afraid to go to the sauna--this could very well be the reason you feel like you're different, like you're the only one. Because everyone who feels that way hides this thing about themselves. And I think this is why so many of us (who also have tuberous or tubular breasts) are so insistent that people come to like them--because the more they are hidden or corrected, the more freakish it seems, when in fact it's really not all that uncommon or freakish.
But hey--I know you've got to get through the day to day. And sometimes, you just have to put personal happiness above a cause. But there is a reason for people being insistent that people not look first to plastic surgery.
September 2, 2010 - 2:15pmThis Comment
As I read these posts I couldn't help but cry. I totally agree with Cathy and her stance that performing such a surgery to improve your quality of life is OK. I'm 29 years old and only recently discovered that my breasts are clinically classified as being tuberous. I have spent the better part of my life feeling like the ugly duckling and thought that I was the only person whose breasts looked the way they do. Recently I started to look into breast augmentation to improve their appearance. I was actually delighted to find that I wasn't alone in this condition and that plastic surgery offered a real solution. I don't particularly want bigger breasts, just 'normal' breasts. Those of us who have researched the procedures most often used to correct this deformity (and yes it is a very real deformity) realise that implants are the only way to truly improve the shape of a tuberous breast. They are used as a means to a natural looking breast (that is when compared to the original shape). You could argue that there is no normal breast, but when you suffer with this condition you feel anything less than normal. I see that some women out there have found a happy existence with their tuberous breats, but I have to agree with Cathy's quoted patient that it has been ''self esteem shattering'' for me. The thought of someone seeing my breasts terrifies me and consequently I've never had a boyfriend or had sex. Is this not a good enough reason to make a change that will radically change my life and the way I view myself? Since my breasts developed to the present day, there has not been a day when I haven't thought about them and how 'ugly' I feel because of them. It's sad I know that breasts can dominate some women's self esteem so much, but the reality is that is can. Breasts are central, for many women, to what it means to be feminine. And the thought of your partner finding them unattractive can be absolutely crippling when it comes to an intimate relationship. I sympathize with the woman who always wears a bra during sex. This is something that I have often thought about. But the idea of explaining why to a male partner is enough to stop me from even considering it. I emplore those women who are dismissing this procedure to understand that for many women suffering with this condition, it is like feeling abnormal. Children get their ears pinned back, people have 'unsightly' moles removed and no one seems to bat an eyelid because it makes them feel better and improve their self esteem. This is not about having big fake breasts, it's just about feeling like a normal woman. I am an attractive, intelligent woman who has wasted away years struggling with feeling like a freak...this surgery is a light at the end of a tunnel and I can't wait to start finally living like every woman deserves too. My only regret is that I didn't know about my condition sooner. Good luck to all of the women out there suffering.
August 25, 2009 - 5:07pmThis Comment
"and yes it is a very real deformity"
There IS no "real" deformity, there is just a human made definition of what is "deformed" and what is not.
This definition also depends on social structure and historical time.
In the Middle Ages your breasts wouldn't be defined as "deformity", they would probably have been close to the ideal of "beauty". Instead your bottom, if it's not overtly big and voluptous, would have been classified as "inadequate". Here comes your "reality"...
Maybe some people are just exxageratedly paranoid with finding out what's THE norm, think "norm" is mandatory or representative for the majority of the population and there can be only a norm of ONE ideal which everything else is subordinated to and deviancy classified as "freakish" or "deformed".
What about investing more time in taking your part in changing these fucked-up, obviously harmful and self-esteem shattering norms instead of recklessly supporting them?
Don't get me wrong, I don't deplore your feelings, I can understand them to some degree, but the discriminating way you are elaborating them against others. And yes, you're right, there are many, many women with those kinds of breasts. So one third or so of all women are "deformed" and "unnatural" (due to your statement, that these are no natural breast form, but a DEformity)? That's in its logic like saying only brown eyes are natural and everything else is a "deformity" which should be "reconstructed", although there is a great percentage of humans who have green, grey and blue eyes. And if you claim there is no significant relevance to people's eye colours you forget, that e.g. the German Nazis classified non-"arian" looking human beings as "Untermenschen" and persecuted them. An item defining arians was eyecolour - among actually every other aspect of the whole human body including the head, which was fanatically calculated and measured what is the "perfect arian body".
I don't want to live in a society that treats people and their bodies like products, that frantically tries to standardize bodies and eradicate difference and deviance and make everybody run after the exact same phyical norm. Honestly, the recent developements scare me a lot.
Well, back to the point: If you choose to put yourself down and view yourself as some kind of monster this is really sad and regrettable, but probably no one can help you here, maybe a good therapist and maybe a loving partner and/or very good friends who care for YOU, perhaps they can do better than a - mainly interested in money - plastic surgeon. Breasts are not the only problem, they just serve as a welcome surface to project and distract from other problems (as well internal as external ones). Maybe realizing that not every man prefers big round, teardrop-shaped breasts could help too, but for many men different kinds of breasts are equally attractive and other factors than breasts are often much more sexually relevant, even if media industry and porn tells you otherwise and is also influencing men and boys in their perception of the female body (and I know this can still be extremely self-esteem shattering of own experience -.-).
But stop discriminating millions of women who naturally come with this breast-shape! (this definitely counts for the author, too)
What's all this wanting people to look all the same and put down those who do not qualify for YOUR opinion of how one should look like, which is what you think others think all people should look like? This is insulting and respectless. You do not only shatter your own self esteem, but those of all other women with those kind of breasts and with those kinds of statements you make it even harder for people, whose bodies do not comply with standardized rules of how a body should look like, to be accepted and appreciated and thus to accept and apprechiate themselves.
That others do act the same way and that "society" supposedly "is just like that", like a totally social darwinistic dystopia, is just a cheap excuse for you acting exactly the same: discriminate and humiliate people who don't fit in artificial standards. You hide behind assholes to justify your disrespectful opinion about others. Thank you so much!^^ -.- (this also counts for the author)
says: a young women who also has "tuberous breasts" and who is also far from being sublime to self-esteem shattering remarks about her breast shape and size and that's why such thoughtless discrimination upsets me.
@the author: Would you post a link to this forum discussion you were writing about?
" Anonymous August 3, 2009 - 8:22pm
You will note that it's the plastic surgery industry that consistently uses the term "tuberous breast deformity".
And while we're playing with semantics and terminology, remember that it was also not too long ago that homosexuality was considered a "disease" that needed to be "cured"."
WORD!
July 9, 2010 - 9:30pmThis Comment
Hello, I just wanted to say that I REALLY appreciate your words. I am as Tracey Emin would say a 'big woman', strong anf powerful. But, having 'abnormal' breasts is something I really struggle with. Alot of my friends are very liberal and so nakedness is standard, but I find myself shying away from nude situations. Sexually it has been limiting, and i hate being limited! Often, I think about surgery, but it goes against everything I believe in, so I'll never do it. There is more to me than nice breasts! But, reading empowering sentences like yours is really helpful, so thank you .
June 1, 2011 - 4:06amThis Comment
haha you make me laugh.. do you think people like myself who have had their tuberous breasts surgically corrected would have spent $17 thousand if their breasts were seen as normal?? its like the whole, what's right/wrong concept. you learn from a very young age what is right and wrong, well to me, (my) tuberous breasts were definately not 'normal'..
November 24, 2010 - 9:37pmThis Comment
I'm completely sympathetic to your situation. I was in exactly the same position, at nearly the same time in my life (I was 30 when I got the surgery) when I realized I was NOT the only woman who lived with this. I had always been horrified of group shower arrangements--I was as terrified for other NORMAL women to see my breasts as I was for MEN to see them--and I felt that I was damaged goods and was less worthy than small-breasted, normal-shaped women. My fear now is that my daughter may inherit this and go through the same hell of self-castigation that I had to go through at her age. All the women in my family have always been large-busted EXCEPT ME, and my daughter, aged 14, appears to be small-busted, as well. If she's a NORMAL small-busted woman, that's absolutely fine. If she ever comes to me and says, "mom, my boobs are shaped funny and it makes me feel bad about myself" you can bet I'm taking her in when she turns 18 to talk to a doctor about it. I would not ask her about it, unless she ever gave me a hint that she felt something was wrong. I want her to be the one who decides whether whatever her development is, is acceptable to her.
February 13, 2010 - 5:27amThis Comment