Hypoplastic Tubular Breasts and the connection to PCOS

[tinkerkat.livejournal.com]

Hey ladies,

I'm 21 (22 in 4 months) and I have just become aware as to the weird shape my breasts have been since they started to form.

I've always been self conscious of my pointy, large areolas, and general extreme smallness of my breasts, especially since I'm a chubster. It's never stopped me from taking my top off for past partners, but I've just always been... aware I didn't have cute, round, picture perfect boobs (not that it's a huge concern, honestly). My current partner doesn't mind, and neither do I.

However, one day I was linked to a "plastic surgery gone bad" gallery, and saw a woman with the EXACT SAME SHAPE breasts as me. My mind went "?!?!?!? WHAT" when I saw this, for I always thought my boobs were a special case. They were labeled as "Hypoplastic Tubular Breasts", and I started to do some research.

Gathered some info to confidently say that this is what I have. Unfortunately it's made me even more self aware of my body, and uncomfortable. Completely involuntary these feelings I now have, and it's really bothering me.

One thing I found out was that women with this have a hard time breast feeding, or unable to breast feed at all. Now, I never plan on having kids (for multiple reasons), but knowing I might not be able to make that choice whether or not I want to breast feed is currently throwing me for a strange loop, and I'm not sure how to deal with these new, odd feelings.

Another point I want to make before putting this into clif notes is the relation to Hypoplastic breasts, and PCOS. Like I've said, I've read up a bit about it, but things don't seem to be completely clear.

What I'm looking to get some advice on on this subject is:

1. For those of you who might have hypoplastic tubular breasts, how did it make you feel after you found out? Bad, good, indifferent experiences? How did you handle it? A lot has been running through my mind, so I'm looking for other personal experiences to help organize everything I'm feeling.

2. If you'd like to voice your personal experiences with PCOS and hypoplastic breasts, by all means do. I've been beginning to think I may have PCOS, but I have no real way of telling, of course. My GYN is 300 miles away, and I want to become informed and familiar with it before I bring it up to her when I see her in a few months for my yearly.

The more informed, the better, right? And whats better than personal experiences as a start?

Thank you, ladies. I've never been more informed about my lady parts until I joined this community!

Comments

[sandi1743.livejournal.com]

Some info from another comment i made about PCOS in another community:

PCOS is a disease (syndrome) of execution not inclusion - in other words you have to exclude a bunch of possible issues before being able to make the dx of PCOS.
Methods of dx'ing PCOS (used together):
-u/s of ovaries - a "string of pearls" is USUALLY present.
-Hormone level checks as different points of the cycle which should include: Estadiol (not just total estrogens), progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and Androstenedione
-Pituitary Hormone level checks such as FSH, LH, ACTH, Prolactin
Adrenal Hormones such as 17-hydroxyprogesterone, cortisol, SHBG
-Thyroid level checks: TSH, Thyroid antibody, T3 and T4
-Cholesterol level checks
-Liver enzyme checks
-blood sugar levels
-insulin levels
-time in-between periods
-male like hair growth patters
-Weight around the middle causing an "apple" shape - it is not always an "over weight" issue but one of where one carried weight

as to the shape of your breasts and PCOS i cannot help you there but good luck.

[tokudama.livejournal.com]

Huh, so that's what that is.

[imnotyourstarx.livejournal.com]

haha thats exactly what i said. its a scientific name for small pointy boobies. yaay! we have our own special sciencey name.

[tinkerkat.livejournal.com]

Man. You're making me feel horrible for actually caring about it. :[

[imnotyourstarx.livejournal.com]

awww no!! i didnt mean to do that!!!!! im so sorry. i just meant, well, i dont know... boobs are shaped funny. they ARE funny. ours are extra funny, but they are still great. just funny! and we have a special name for funny boobies. i like it, and shall be using the term from now on. it makes me feel special and unique haha :D

[sticky-hot-buns.livejournal.com]

Okay i have got PCOS and i hate it. When i was 14 or 15 i cant exactally remember i stopped getting my periods all together. I was really tired all the time, i had wierd hair growing out of under my chin, on my abdomen like a guy, and on my chest, which i have to admit was pretty embarassing. After missing my period for 7 or 8 months and not being able to get out of bed anymore cause i was so tired, i went to a OBGYN for my first time and she diagnosed me with PCOS. I had to then go on a BC pill and really watch my diet. Since then i have gotten ultrisounds on my ovarys, and can i tell you that deifinatly was not fun, and they look really gross. Mine looked really hairy which was not normal and i had all these pearl looking things around them which i later found out were cysts. When i started getting my periods again from the pill they hurt really bad i found that i had around 10 cysts on each ovary and they were bursting and when they do it really is a sharp pain like i have never felt. My abdomen is constantly sore, and i have cramps everyday of the week every week of the month now. A couple of years ago my boyfriend and i found that one of my breasts was actually shrinking! And it totally freaked me out. They were really sensitive and he or i could hardly touch them. I was scared that i had breast cancer but it just turned out that it was actually my PCOS and the hormones right around when i had my period. They today still shrink a little but it was also due to a bad diet. Alot happens to you when you have PCOS and its different for everyone, just because you look it up on the internet and may have one or two similarities dont diagnose yourself with it first. Yes do be educated about it when you go in and have questions to ask, cause if you have it, it is definatly a bitch to deal with. I am barren and have diabetes due to this thing! So i am not too happy about it, and it also caused me to gain about 100 lbs in 5 years, and that makes it all hard too. I wish you all the best and i pray to god that you dont have it and it is just a fluke in the size and shape of your breasts, cause i a fluke would be way better than PCOS! Good luck hunny, like i said this is just what happened to me and is currently happening to me, and its different for everyone!! Do your reasearch and just kind of wait until you hear from your doctor about it! Add me as a friend if you like i would love to talk to you some more and get to know you! Good luck and if you have any questions that i might be able to answer for you dont hesitate to ask!!!Good luck sweety!

[imnotyourstarx.livejournal.com]

my story of how i found out i have hypoplastic tubular breasts: i read your post. ive never heard of this before so i googled "Hypoplastic Tubular Breasts" and then hit the "images" button. then i said, "yup. got it."

to me, its like people saying they have a "pear" body or an "apple" body. its just a shape description. i have small, pointy boobies. always have, probably always will. apparently someone came up with a scientific sounding name for it. whatever. no doctor has ever commented on it. no lover has ever commented on it, unless it was positive. im not bothered by it.

i, like you, never want children, nor does my partner. i am looking to get off birth control, since ive been on it for a decade, but i do not want to consider permanent bc options, like essure or a vasectomy, because, well, i dont know why. its a silly reason that i cant explain. i know ill never ever WANT children, but im not ready to make it so i CANT. so, i totally get ya.

[preciouslilme.livejournal.com]

I've always known my boobs were different. It didn't bother me until my boyfriend made a comment about them and I found out what it was through plastic surgery sites that called it a deformity. I'm not in a good place with it at the moment to be honest. I won't let my SO take off my shirt, ever, or even touch them. I'm 99.9% I don't have PCOS though. I never planned on breast feeding but it also makes me sad that I may not have the option. Apparently there are techniques to try and stimulate the milk though that can be relatively successful.

Re: tubular breasts

[preciouslilme.livejournal.com]

I'm not tinkercat, but have the same problem and would love to read it if you're willing to share. I've known about mine for about six months and haven't shown my boyfriend since. Not that he deserves to after what he said.

Re: tubular breasts

[mjmblh.livejournal.com]

I have "tubie boobies" too, as my sister and I call them. She has them, too. Hereditary or coincidence? I thought as a teenager that they weren't developing normally b/c my underwire bras were too tight around the bottom. Mine are so asymmetrical- my left is a full C, and my right is a full A! And my hugely puffy nipples point directly at the ground. I found out about this condition when I had my first child and I had a really hard time producing enough milk, right off the bat. I met with a lactation consultant who told me what was up with my oddly shaped breasts. I cried when she told me, mostly b/c she said I would have a hard time making enough milk to breastfeed exclusively, which was (still is) really important to me. I did end up nursing my first son for 10 months, but supplemented with formula the whole time. With my second son I nursed exclusively for 5 months and then he was just too hungry so I supplemented, and he is 10.5 months old now and still nursing as much as he possibly can!
BTW, I always said I was all set with kids....until I forgot to take my pills on a weekend vacation and got pregnant =) The best "mistake" that ever happened to me.

i found a solution!!

[tubie-boobie.livejournal.com]

Ok, at least a temporary one. For those of you who have been seeing this page for a while, I used to post here under another name, and I got dangerously close to having my cover blown by someone that I would especially rather not reveal my condition too - she is all the more likely to rub her double D's in my face. Ok, that came out wrong!! But you know what I mean.

So, yeah I have tubular breasts, I found out late, when i was in my late twenties, it has been a year now, and I am done feeling bitter. I am married, my husband is decent enough not to mention anything, even if he noticed. In any case, he is dead against implants, and even otherwise surgery is not for me - I cant even wear make up, let alone stuff things under my skin. So - at least for special occasion dressing, I found this awesome gel insert called "takeouts" - clear, gsilicone, somewhat like chicken cutlets, but better overall coverage, and can be placed wherever you lack tissue. Cutlets are more for cleavage - which I'm nowhere near expecting anyway. All I want is, when I wear a tight fitting shirt, to have some filling out, without it looking obviously fake. In our case, since often there is such less tissue on the underside of the breast, paddeds sit unnaturally high on the chest, making me look like a boy dressing drag. These on the other hand, are squishy and have weight like real tissue, so they fall well and round out the shape wonderfully. And on a private mental dare, I wore these inside a plain, no-underwire unpadded cotton bra and changed shirts in front of a girlfriend, and she didn't suspect a thing!! Since the bra was obviously unpadded, she didnt have reason to think that my shape was anything but natural. And this girl has seen me in a bra a couple of times, so all the more exciting! She did notice a change though, but thought I had lost weight around the waist (probably optical illusion caused by my subtly larger breasts!! yay!! bonus!!!

best of all, i "grope tested" it rigorously, and nope. Unless someone is really pinching and prodding, casual / accidental contact will betray nothing!!

Ok - if you want DRAMATIC filling, this wont do that - and you would be well advised not to go for that either, coz no one is buying that you went from Calista Flockhart to Pamela Anderson overnight - dead giveaway.

This gives me one full cupsize of overall increase, and more importantly, natural shape and fall. All I ever asked for, dear lord, all I ever asked for.


So girls, check out 'takeouts" and other gel inserts - experiment till you find what suits your shape and requirement. After all, if Silicone it is gonna be, wouldn't you rather it was out than in??And even if you do plan to go under the knife sometime, for now, at or under 50 bucks a pair, voila a recession-smart boob job!!!

TB

[allie1988.livejournal.com]

Hello there, I had Tubular Hypoplastic breasts, they were AA cup and made me very depressed. I couldn't even take my bra off in front of my partner and made me feel very self conscious.
I went to my Doctor when I was 16 to see what was wrong and they said come back when I'm 18 as I was probably still developing.

Later on looking at photos of Tubular breasts I realised mine were the same.

I went to my docotor when I was 19 and told him how it made me feel, that it is effecting my confidence and he refered me to the Breast clinic at the conquest Hospital to see specialist Surgion M.r Pickford.

He took a gander and confirmed that did in fact have Tubular Hypoplastic breasts and put me on the NHS waiting list for correctional surgery.

Within 3 months time I was please to be informed that my surgery would take place of May 2008 and I had the surgery. The way they do it is by removing the nipple and making it smaller so it doesn't stick out.
I was transformed from a 36AA to a 36C The surgery wasn't to painful and they put me next to a 17yr old who was also getting the same correctional surgery.

I don't know if this helps but I wish someone had told me about the correctional surgery available.

If you have any questions email toys_in_the_attic1988@hotmail.co.uk :)

[tangibletime.livejournal.com]

Hello all,

I just had my consultation for a breast augmentation today and he told me I have tubular boobs! I've always known they're gross and ugly but I've heard many girls talk about "pointy boobs" so I was like whatever, I just have bad luck with life. Going by a dress size, I should be a D. I'm like a small B? I don't even know. I've worn the same bra for like 4 years because it's impossible to find a good bra in an A or B with a 38 around size. Finding out that I have this "deformity" actually makes me happy because I have something to blame the ugly on! haha. Either way, I'm getting breast implants to be proportional this year so, I just hope the doctor can help make them prettier as well.

[xiandesi.livejournal.com]

Replying waaayy too late (and I don't know you, but I'm totally sympathetic. I understand your problem. I really wish there were a support group somewhere for ladies with underdeveloped breasts. I grew up always being told they'd fill out someday... Well I'm 34 now and about to have my third child and no they still haven't come in yet. It's kind of nice to have a diagnosis of "Hypoplastic Tubular Breasts" to blame their tininess on.

I can put my bust measurements into bra size calculators and they call me a 46/48 A/AA (Yes I'm plus-sized). Others say "Based on these measurements you don't need a bra". They're wrong. Underdeveloped breasts will sag eventually too (even though I never thought they would), but good fitting bras are almost impossible to find. I would recommend breezies (A QVC brand, but you can find for around $10 on ebay). They're the only bras I've found that fit right, and I can even wear a B cup cause the cups are sized so small.

As to breastfeeding, no I can't do it exclusively (and most hypolastic ladies can't), but I supplement with formula and everything works out fine. I don't have PCOS, but doctors have tested me for it as I fit the symptoms. Despite having a third kid, I'm also fairly infertile (also common among PCOS/Hypoplastic ladies). That's 3 kids during about 15 years of unprotected sex with hubby. So there are definitely upsides.

Having hypoplastic breasts sucks, but mostly when you're looking for bras. The right partner won't care about your bust size. My hubby has never once complained. I don't recommend implants though, since if you ever do want to consider breastfeeding it can cause problems.

[tinkerkat.livejournal.com]

Reading this post is now funny now that time has gone by. I'm older, and one hopes to be a bit wiser.

I actually work in a cosmetic plastic surgery center where I perform a breast augmentation, or four a day. Slightly surprising, I don't see too many tuberous breasts come through for implants. Maybe two patients per month that I see seek surgery. Sometimes someone's anatomy makes it almost impossible to achieve the shape of breasts they are going for. And sometimes you can get someone to look like they've never had surgery, and that they've had nice round perky breasts all their life.

I've gained a bit of weight since this was posted. It's actually helped fill out bras so that it seems like I have small around breasts. I've had consults with one of my surgeons I work with to see if we can't change the shape of my breasts a bit so that I could possibly fill a B cup.

Congratulations on the babies! I'm gonna look into the Breezies brand, see if that doesn't do me any good. Shopping for bras is pretty much the most awful thing to do ever.

[ginsued.livejournal.com]

I just stumbled across this page while researching tubular breast deformity-- just 'discovered' I have it. I'm not sure if this page is still being checked, because the previous comments seemed to have been posted a while ago, but I have a question for tinkerkat: Is there a way to fix this without implants that you know of? Seeing as you work at a cosmetic surgery center I thought you might have some insight! I don't really care about having large breasts, I just want normal looking ones, lol! I'd love to know if surgery without implants in an option...Thanks!

[yes-tea-can.livejournal.com]

I do not know if you still look at this but for some reasons I think I may have PCOS or a related condition (my mother has PCOS).

Tubular (or tuberous) breasts are not always small and pointy, most of the time they are normal size but with a strange shape.

Most "tubular" breasts that are shown are grade 3 : small and widely spaced, usually pointy with big areola and nipple.

This picture : http://www.ideallook.com/images/bs_cor/cor2.jpg
This is what grade 3 tubular breasts can look like (the size can vary a little but the shape is significantà.

Aesthetically, I do not see it as a problem, however, most female with this kind of breasts cannot breastfeed.

Grade 1 is "almost normal", the breasts are not so wide apart but the nipple is low and looking to the wrong side. (I have grade 1 tubular breasts, unfortunately, I think they are the worse looking kind of tubular breasts, plus they are asymetrical but decided to keep them however).

Grade 2 is more like grade 3 but with more breasts tissue on the side (close to the shoulder).

You can see the differences here : http://www.chirurgieesthetique-paris.fr/Images/site/seins-tubereux-grade.jpg