question—why do men have nipples? Cooper understood that both males and females are equipped with the same hardware early in fetal life, but he didn’t speculate on how they grew distinct. Here’s a newer bit of developmental biology: After an embryo is conceived, it is rigged to become either sex. This is called its bipotential state. During its first six weeks, certain pre-organ structures are laid down, including two parallel milk ridges. Born of ancient genes and common to all mammals, these ridges run up and down the length of the torso. If the fetus inherits female XX genes and the process unfolds in the expected way, then estrogen will turn the primitive plumbing into a female reproductive tract. If the fetus inherits male XY genes, testosterone will inhibit that progression. Since a later dose of estrogen can make male breasts grow, and then a hit of prolactin can fire up milk-making, it would theoretically be possibleto have fathers become full partners in lactation. They could take a milking pill. But good luck with that one.
In animals with large litters, the milk lines launch multiple teats on each side. Primates, elephants, horses, cows, and some other mammals get just one set, usually located toward the hind legs. In about one human in a hundred, a vestigial extra nipple or two can show up. Cooper was familiar with these cases, which is why, in his book, he writes, with characteristic judiciousness, “the breasts are generally two in number.”
And of course, Cooper knew all about the inconstancy of breasts. They grow from almost nothing, gradually during childhood and then quite rapidly through adolescence, pregnancy, and lactation. The pace of change slows down again through perimenopause and menopause. The ligaments bearing his name tend to relax over time, and the volume of tissue often decreases as the glandular lobules atrophy (stay tuned for more about this in chapter 13). So, yes, there really is a sag factor, but when and how it happens vary among individuals. The nipples, too, change from small and light in youth to larger and darker in adulthood. From the time we are born, our breasts are on the move.
Cooper did such a thorough job investigating the breast that for the next century or so, no one bothered to learn any more. Until recently, the greatest advances in understanding the mechanics of the mammary gland were made in the dairy field. As to the anatomy of the breast—and the effects on said anatomy from the inexorable march of time—that would eventually undergo some eye-popping revisionism.
Thanks to recent technology, you no longer have to be dead to have someone inject foreign substances into your mammary glands.
• 4 •
FILL HER UP
… but on the fourth night, Ormond chancing to praise the fine shape of one of her very dear friends, Miss Darrell whispered, “She owes that fine shape to a finely padded corset.”
— MARIA EDGEWORTH,
Ormon
B REASTS MIGHT EXIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF FEEDING infants, but let’s face it, for most women these days, breasts fulfill that destiny only briefly, if at all. The rest of the time, they sit around trying, sometimes desperately, to look nice. In other primates, “breasts” exist only while lactating. For us, lactating is beside the point. Many of us will think nothing of jeopardizing lactation at that other altar of evolution: beauty. Throughout the ages, women have alternately flattened them, buttressed them, veiled them, decorated them, and bared them, sometimes in the course of a day. Now, with enough cash or credit, we can change them for life.
According to the American Society for Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery, 289,000 women went under the knife to enlarge their breasts in 2009, vaulting it to the country’s most popular cosmeticsurgery ahead of nose jobs, eyelid lifts, and liposuction. That figure does not include 113,000 breast reductions in women, 17,000 breast reductions in men, 87,000 “breast lifts,” and 20,000 implant
In animals with large litters, the milk lines launch multiple teats on each side. Primates, elephants, horses, cows, and some other mammals get just one set, usually located toward the hind legs. In about one human in a hundred, a vestigial extra nipple or two can show up. Cooper was familiar with these cases, which is why, in his book, he writes, with characteristic judiciousness, “the breasts are generally two in number.”
And of course, Cooper knew all about the inconstancy of breasts. They grow from almost nothing, gradually during childhood and then quite rapidly through adolescence, pregnancy, and lactation. The pace of change slows down again through perimenopause and menopause. The ligaments bearing his name tend to relax over time, and the volume of tissue often decreases as the glandular lobules atrophy (stay tuned for more about this in chapter 13). So, yes, there really is a sag factor, but when and how it happens vary among individuals. The nipples, too, change from small and light in youth to larger and darker in adulthood. From the time we are born, our breasts are on the move.
Cooper did such a thorough job investigating the breast that for the next century or so, no one bothered to learn any more. Until recently, the greatest advances in understanding the mechanics of the mammary gland were made in the dairy field. As to the anatomy of the breast—and the effects on said anatomy from the inexorable march of time—that would eventually undergo some eye-popping revisionism.
Thanks to recent technology, you no longer have to be dead to have someone inject foreign substances into your mammary glands.
• 4 •
FILL HER UP
… but on the fourth night, Ormond chancing to praise the fine shape of one of her very dear friends, Miss Darrell whispered, “She owes that fine shape to a finely padded corset.”
— MARIA EDGEWORTH,
Ormon
B REASTS MIGHT EXIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF FEEDING infants, but let’s face it, for most women these days, breasts fulfill that destiny only briefly, if at all. The rest of the time, they sit around trying, sometimes desperately, to look nice. In other primates, “breasts” exist only while lactating. For us, lactating is beside the point. Many of us will think nothing of jeopardizing lactation at that other altar of evolution: beauty. Throughout the ages, women have alternately flattened them, buttressed them, veiled them, decorated them, and bared them, sometimes in the course of a day. Now, with enough cash or credit, we can change them for life.
According to the American Society for Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery, 289,000 women went under the knife to enlarge their breasts in 2009, vaulting it to the country’s most popular cosmeticsurgery ahead of nose jobs, eyelid lifts, and liposuction. That figure does not include 113,000 breast reductions in women, 17,000 breast reductions in men, 87,000 “breast lifts,” and 20,000 implant
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