Everyone knows what the menopause is, but not everyone knows all the side-effects of it.
While many people just imagine it to be just to be random hot flashes, mood swings, and night sweats, you may not realize that there is another side-effect of menopause, one nobody tells you about.
This side effect only affects 1 in 5 women, but it is none the less a problem amongst menopausal women.
During the menopause, some women suffer from an increase in breast size, the effects of which can be very dramatic.
Since beginning the menopause, Perri Butcher was suffering from one of the side effects, one which no one talks about.
Her breasts dramatically became bigger.
Perri’s bust had grown from a size 34C all the way to 36E. As her bust got bigger, her levels of discomfort and self-awareness increased as well, and she became more self-conscious about her growing breasts.
But Perri isn’t alone. It’s estimated that 1 in 5 women will experience a noticeable rise in their cup size around the time of the menopause. Normally increasing by two sizes. But in some cases, they can grow up to four sizes bigger.
On one side of the age scale, there were younger women wanting bigger breasts. But on the opposite side of the age scale, there were older women wanting a breast reduction. Why? Because their breasts had increased in size as a result of the menopause.
‘I was finally accepted for an NHS breast reduction. Now it’s just weeks away and, while of course, I’m nervous about having surgery — and I know I will be left permanently scarred — it will be worth it to have a better quality of life.’
According to Dr. Giles Davies, a specialist breast surgeon at Spire St Anthony’s Hospital, in Surrey, UK, there are a number of factors as to why a woman’s breasts can get larger at this time in their life.
‘Hormones are one of the main reasons women’s breasts grow as they age,’ he explained. ‘As the menopause approaches, oestrogen levels drop — sometimes quite steeply — and the breasts go through a process called “involution”, where the glands that produce milk shut down, and breast tissue is replaced by fat.
‘That’s when you start marching up the cup sizes. And breast fat is extremely resistant to diet and exercise: once it’s there, it’s very hard to get rid of.
‘Add to this the fact that many women will have experienced a loss in elasticity in their breasts after having children, so they are droopier — the medical term for this is “breast ptosis” — and the nipple may lose height and start to point downwards.’
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