Large Breasts and exams

I find saggy (for lack of a better word) breasts to be arousing. I was wondering if women with saggy breasts, find that doctors examine there breast more or less during a breast exam.

Being now half way through my fifties it won't come as any surprise that my boobs aren't as perky as they used to be 😢

I think it takes a little longer now that they're not as firm. I was a 'C' cup the first time I was examined (at sixteen). Some weight gain through my forties swelled them to 'D's but I'm back down now. Bigger takes longer for obvious reasons and in my experience less firm takes longer.

Jackie

Larger breasts that are lower on the chest wall also require lifting the woman's left breast to get a good listen at the apex of her heart.

Thank you for your answer Jackie. i know many women don't like the thought of there breast sagging. i found your answer to be enlighten. I was wondering if you would be kind enough to answer a few more questions i had. If i may ask you what age you were when your breast first started to sag, and if i may ask how far they currently hang down? Have they lost there girth as well becoming more "pancake" like? Any other insight you have on this topic is greatly appreciated.

-Nick

Well Nick, I suppose the lack of firmness first became noticeable in my early forties. That was also around the time that I’d put on some weight which made them heavier and may have exacerbated the natural progression. There’s no flattening or stretching (yet) there’re still as plump as they always were—just droopy. My avatar will give you some idea although that particular bra has a lot of support.

Jackie

I like to examine visually and palpate all kind of breasts. Saggy breasts and bigger breasts are very interesting to examine I agree and are require more time and care to examine starting by visual inspection in which is important to ask the patient to lean forward supported by the hands of the examiner or putting the hands on the knee rests if the patient is seated at the end of the table. After menopause women breasts tend to loose nodularity that is more common on young female patients. nodularity and changes on the breast tissue during monthly periods are very intersting to palpate and may be felt better on the upper outer quadrant. That "fybrocistic condition" is not considered a disease anymore but frequently alarm women that perform self-exams. An experienced examinator won't be alarm by those kind of findings and will search instead for a dominant mass that also on most of cases are benignous cysts (that may appear and disappear before and after menstruation) or fibroadenomas.

Nick, from a 40-something woman who has had two children, I want to say thank you for making my breasts seem interesting. I found that, after nursing the second one (and being one of those moms who produced enough breast milk to donate it), I'm so happy to hear from someone who finds this change attractive. I remember when I stopped nursing and pumping, and felt myself "deflate" when before, I had been told my breasts looked like an old-fashioned champagne saucer-glass ... thank you. You just made me feel a little bit good about me.

Hi helena, thank you for your response, I'm glad i could make you feel a little better. As I've said i find "saggy" breasts to be interesting and very arousing. Breastfeeding your children was the best thing you could do for them, and the results to your breast were natural and arousing at the same time, i wouldn't let anyone tell you different. 😃 May i ask you to describe how your breasts appeared when you where you 20, (there cup size? Girth/plumpness? Where your breast naturally sat compared to your belly button?)and how they appear today?(there cup size? Girth/plumpness? Where your breast naturally sit compared to your belly button?)

For the record, Helena, I totally agree. I would much rather examine your breasts than anything closer to society's ideal.

Dr. Brian

Im 57 and obviously my breasts droop more than they used to. Only difference I find is the doctor/nurse now lifts up my breast to put the stethescope onto my chest wall apart from that no difference.

A friend of mine recently told me that while her doctor was checking her heartbeat he lifted up her breast to position the stethoscope on her chest wall. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else? and if so why? Are your breasts large? Sagging like my friends breasts where? or for some other reason?

Nick2468 this is a common procedure when the breasts are large, or sagging, and the doctor needs to steth the area under the breasts.

It would seem lifting the breast is normal if it obstructs the apex beats

Yes, that happened to me as well.

I happened to be at a clinic with my wife and saw the doctor do the same with her breast only it wasn't sagging.

A girl's or woman's breasts must be exposed in order to thoroughly listen to her heart, and if she is a B cup or larger, the examiner needs to lift her left breast to get a good listen at the apex for mitral valve sounds.

I suppose that I have never had a very through heart exam, since I have never been braless during such a exam in real life. And, as such, I have never had my large breasts (DD's) lifted.

In medfet play, I would be all for it!

Lady Teddy

This a very common thing for health care providers to do if a breast large or small is in the way of their listening to a patient's heart.

The proper technique is for the provider to slide their hand (palm down) from below the breast, then slide that hand under the breast, then rotate their hand upward to expose the chest wall to auscultate the heart... this usually exposes the preferred listening area between the 6th and 7th intercostal space (the space between the ribs) which is right over the left side of the heart.

@Lady Teddy--If you've never had your bra off for heart listening and never had your left breast lifted for the doctor to listen under it, you have not had a thorough s tething of your heart, at least you haven't had one since you were a kid before your breasts developed. Girls and women often don't get a really good cardiac stething unless they have symptoms suggesting a heart problem or a history of heart problems. On a well-endowed woman such as yourself, without taking off your bra, the most the doctor can do is a quick listen to your heart mostly at the aortic and pulmonic valves, but he would miss any murmurs originating from your tricuspid and mitral valves. If you weren't so far away, I'd be happy to give you a thorough cardiac stething with a good cardiology stethosope.

I was braless when my old doctor listened to my heart but she never lifted up my breast should she have?

^^^^ It depends on the size of your breasts. If they are smaller or you are fairly young, there is no need to lift the breast. If it is pendulous, it should be lifted.

Every time I go in. One hand with the scope, one hand to lift. Some Dr's are discretely polite on how they lift, ohters are not. Gravity at my age sucks!

This is one of my favorite parts of the steth exam... I've never had my breast actually lifted, but nudged upward with the doc's palm.

I'm a C cup and my dr. doesn't have to lift when i am lying down. she just puts her stethoscope where i guess it should be. sitting up, she does, though.

Very interesting dicussion and thanks to the women for their comments.

I just came across this discussion and find it quite interesting.

First, I would have to say that "saggy" is a somewhat subjective term, so that the "sagginess" of breasts is really in the eye of the beholder. That being said, as I am now in my mid-40s, my C-cup breasts are certainly not as perky as they once were; they definitely have some "sag" to them.

To address the stethoscope issue that has been raised in this discussion, as an adult I have rarely had my heart listened to with the stethoscope on my bare chest; it is almost always placed on the outside of the gown or whatever clothing I am wearing. That being the case, I don't remember a real doctor ever lifting my breast or touching it in any way to move it to listen to my heart. I have only ever experienced this in play exams.

Finally, to the original question about whether doctors tend to examine saggy breasts more or less during a breast exam, I am not sure how to answer this question. In my experience, in general I think my breasts were examined more thoroughly when I was younger because I was told that my breast tissue was quite dense. In more recent years, as my breasts have started to become saggier (and I think therefore also less dense), it seems that breast exams have become quicker, even somewhat cursory at times. Unfortunately, because I have had to switch doctors several times for various reasons, there is the added factor of individual differences between examiners as a confounding variable. Another factor that has influenced the time and thoroughness of a breast exam for me has been the reason for the exam. Whereas a routine exam, especially as I have become older, can be very quick, anytime that I have questions or concerns about something I may have felt during a self-exam has always resulted in a much more in-depth clinical exam of not only the area of concern, but both breasts in their entirety. All that being said, I have been pleased that the last few breast exams I have had actually have been more thorough, leaving me more confident that all feels well there.

To me it seems strange that as a woman ages , that her breast exams are not as thorough as when she was younger.

Age is an established risk factor for breast cancer.The older a woman is, the more likely she is to get breast cancer.

Rates of breast cancer are low in women under 40. Fewer than 5 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. are younger than 40 . Rates begin to increase after age 40 and are highest in women over age 70.

So as Blue Iris stated:

Finally, to the original question about whether doctors tend to examine saggy breasts more or less during a breast exam, I am not sure how to answer this question. In my experience, in general I think my breasts were examined more thoroughly when I was younger because I was told that my breast tissue was quite dense. In more recent years, as my breasts have started to become saggier (and I think therefore also less dense), it seems that breast exams have become quicker, even somewhat cursory at times.

If this is the case then its a very worrying trend , and reflects badly on her providers.