by Sara Harris, BHSc
Breasts and Breast health have been a hot topic in the media recently with Angelina Jolie’s radical move to have a double ‘preventative’ mastectomy and hailed a hero for doing so. It made me wonder – what is our relationship with our breasts and is there more that can be done before getting to this radical ‘preventative’ method? What exactly is the function of our breasts and how do they contribute to the rest of the body?
What Functions do our Breasts have?
Breasts are glandular organs, so are therefore very sensitive to hormone changes in the body. This is why we may experience different symptoms such as hardness, lumpy, sore and sensitive breasts at different times of the month. Our breasts are very closely linked to our reproductive organs, ovaries and uterus, responding to changes in hormone production throughout each cycle. Just as our uterus changes and sheds the lining when no pregnancy occurs so too do the breasts prepare and change in the same way. The same hormones are stimulating breast tissue growth as well as increasing blood vessel and cell activity in preparation for a possible pregnancy. Although unlike the shedding as in menstruation, the cells of the breasts are reabsorbed by the body and go through the same process again next month.
Therefore the hormonal changes occurring in the reproductive organs, uterus and ovaries each month are also taking place within the breasts. They are a part of the bigger picture here, taking their place in the magnificently and delicately orchestrated hormonal performance.
When pregnancy does occur, the hormone releases change and breasts respond accordingly. Similarly, when pregnancy does not occur they respond to the hormone releases that take them through another cycle.
So from this discussion anyone might assume that this is solely what the breasts are for – they are responding to the potential of a baby and the need to feed and nurture.
What else could Breasts be for?
Society tells women what their breasts are for. Through their sexualised and commodified way of using women and their breasts in the media we are told that women’s breasts are for sexual pleasure, primarily to please/pleasure someone other than themselves. This is dangerous and young girls are growing up thinking that they need to have their breasts looking a certain way, like the perfectly airbrushed UN-REAL model in the magazine or now more commonly the cosmetically enhanced porn star (also UN-REAL) – all for the pleasure of men!
Beyond Function – Connection to our Breasts
Is it possible that focusing only on the above ‘functions’ is making a woman’s breasts about someone else first, rather than about herself? Do we forget that our breasts belong to our body and that they are playing a part in the system as a whole? Do we grow into women thinking that our breasts are for feeding or pleasing others first and foremost? I’ve observed the evidence that we do and in doing so we are disconnecting from our breasts and disconnecting from our bodies, leaving a trail of ‘misunderstandings’ when we contemplate what it is to be a woman.
Is this why ‘getting rid’ of our breasts seems like such a valid measure of ill health prevention? Because maybe we have separated from our breasts and haven’t taken the opportunity to actually connect to them and feel and know them as a part of the whole – that they are ‘ours’ and that maybe there is the potential for amazing healing.
What if by connecting to herself and her breasts a woman was empowered to feel and know the choices she makes that are harming to her health and her breasts and those choices that are healthy?
For example, she may discover that being there for everyone else without taking care and nurturing herself first is quite draining and that if she drives and pushes herself beyond what she really feels at work, throughout the day, in exercise etc., then she may feel a hardness in her breasts and her body.
Conversely, a woman may find that making a choice to honour how she feels without over-riding it is something that her body responds well to. She may also notice that when she takes the time to really nurture and care for herself that the quality of her relationships with others improves, not to mention the effect it may have on her own body. She may continue to find new and loving ways to be with herself when she can feel how her body responds.
So if this is the case, preventative treatment can certainly be expanded to bring in the inner and outer working of the whole woman. Only then can we start to see how our choices and the way that we are living are affecting us. Should the way we treat our breasts and ourselves, all things being part of the whole, not be THE most important preventative treatment out there? Instead of the focus being on what is wrong, maybe we can step in way before to begin learning to understand and connect more to our breasts as part of who we are as women first.