How Large Can Breasts Grow?
September 24th, 2006
Virginal breast hypertrophy (VBH) is a rare medical condition which causes excessive growth of the breasts during puberty. The presence of excessively large breasts (hypertrophy) in teenagers is caused by over-sensitivity to the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. VBH starts at puberty soon after the girl’s first menstrual period and can overwhelm a young girl’s life.
Alternate/Historical Names:
- Juvenile hypertrophy
- Juvenile gigantomastia
- Juvenile mammary gigantism
- Juvenile macromastia
- Pubertal hypertrophy
- Pubertal gigantomastia
- Pubertal macromastia
- Pubertal mammary gigantism
- Teenage hypertrophy
- Teenage gigantomastia
- Teenage mammary gigantism
- Teenage macromastia
Hypertrophy means the increase in the size of an organ or body part.
Macromastia (macro=large, mastia=breast)
The degree of virginal breast hypertrophy varies from woman to woman. In severe cases it is possible for a young women to have breasts that weigh well in excess of 20 lb. each.
“One medial investigation reported breasts as heavy as 50 lbs a piece in an American girl just 15 years of age.”
With VBH, teenage girls experience enlargement of the nipples and their areola’s may change in color as they grow to cover the ever expanding breast. In very severe cases of VBH, hypertrophy of the clitoris can occur because of the increase of estrogen and progesterone in the young woman’s body.
Warning Signs:
- The breasts start to grow quickly at the time of the first period
- The breasts are large and out of proportion to rest of the body
- The breasts give the appearance that they are engored with milk from pregnancy
- The nipple and areolar area may stretch and become pale or lose pigment
- The veins of the breast may be large and full
In some medical cases the VBH breast growth is not constant and comes in growth spurts. Young women with VBH may have minimal or no breast growth and then experience a growth spurt where the breasts grow very rapidly in a short period of time (often an entire cup size per week). These growth spurts can cause physical discomfort and sometimes a general ache is felt as the breasts expand and grow.
Early and excessive breast growth may also be the result of a disorder known as Precocious Puberty. Precocious Puberty is the premature release of the luteinizing hormone LHRH by the hypothalamus that triggers secretion of pituitary gonadotropin. As a consequence, the gonads function at an inappropriately early age and can result in the appearance of unwanted sexual characteristics.
“In females, the breasts start to develop before age 8 and menstruation occurs before age 10.”
Diagnosis is made through a combination of clinical exams, blood tests for levels of hormones described above, and bone x-rays to determine bone age and development.
Young girls with Precocious Puberty may develop large breasts, grow pubic and underarm hair, menstruate and may ovulate. Afflicted individuals may encounter psychological problems due to their accelerated growth and may feel alienated from their peers. Parents will feel helpless and psychological counseling for the family is recommended.
These girls may exhibit increased aggressiveness and hyperactivity due to the rise in gonad functionality and can display an increase in sexual desire and sexual curiosity. Precocious Puberty in young girls can even lead to excessive masturbation. They are often found pleasuring themselves for hours as their focus on daily tasks deteriorates.
VBH and Precocious Puberty are not to be confused with “just” having large breasts. Millions of girls grow large breasts at an early age. VBH and Precocious Puberty are excessive and extreme. Consult your doctor should you notice any of the above warning signs.
A large number young girls have been emailing Hiddenfeet recently about a website called TooSoon. The website features plenty of useful information about Central Precocious Puberty (CPP) along with colorful stories and childrens coloring books.
Central precocious puberty is a condition in which puberty starts too soon in children. This occurs in one child of every 5,000 to 10,000 children and is more common in girls.
While we applaud some of the information provided by this site, TooSoon’s primary motivation is the sale of a drug know as Lupron Depot-PED. Lupron Depot-PED works in children by stopping the production of gonadotropin-releasing hormones. Stopping the production of these hormones delays the onset of their puberty. A child’s development of secondary sex characteristics, such as facial hair in boys or breast development in girls, will slow or stop.
Many visitors of Hiddenfeet are angry that the website TooSoon is preying on the insecurities of girls at an early age for the sake of selling the drug Lupron Depot-PED.
Quote from the TooSoon website:
“Another effect of CPP is social. Children with CPP are often embarrassed and confused by their early development, which can lead to social difficulties.”
Our current medical consultant Lisa Elton is investigating this drug and the companies that produce it. We would like to hear from other doctors and parents who know children taking injections of Lupron Depot-PED. As with all drugs, Hiddenfeet urges parents to seek multiple medical opinions and research products as thoroughly as possible.
I knew a girl in grade school who developed VBH and was never able to overcome its effects. Everything was difficult for her.
Students wouldn’t pair up with her in groups because she was freakish in size. The women teachers would ignore her requests for help because they thought she was stupid and never gave her a chance prove herself intellectually. Male teachers would put her in the back of choir groups so that the audience wouldn’t laugh and giggle during performances.
I lost track of her over the years, but looking back on it, I truely hope she had a strong support system at home. Sadly most homes these days lack the mother, father guidance they need.
Great article. I learned a lot.
Teens Before Their Time
Found this info that can help shed more light on how and why girls are growing up so fast.
Burden of Breast Hypertrophy
Also found this article on some case studies. The link will load a small PDF file. It is quite interesting to read.
Libbey, those studies were interesting. It did squash the myth that an increase in breast size meant an increasing health burden. Symptoms of an increase in breast size were a more important health burden that just the change in physical breast size.
The authors were trying to discover why some women with large breasts were more symptomatic than others. One explanation is the effect of reporting bias, in which those subjects may have overemphasized their symptoms. Each woman handles the mental stress of large breasts differently.
Like the article says, patients who seek surgical care, might feel an incentive that a more strongly expressed symptom severity could determine their access to surgery.
Good survey and analysis but the sample of 486 women, with 291 presenting for surgical consultation and 195 control subjects is still too small imo to be of much worth. Part of this problem arises from the fact that large breasted women tend to be very reclusive.
Looking at the charts and reading the requirements, those women surveyed didn’t seem all that large chested. Reported bra-cup size D or larger? That’s considered a candidate for breast hypertrophy?
Technically, the word hypertrophy by itself means the increase in the size of an organ or body part. There are lots of different variations of breast hypertrophy and since the surveyed women were measured for their BMI, we can assume that the D-cup and DD-cup women are large chested for their figures.
Thank you for the link to the study Libbey!
I read another article that mentioned the enlargement of the nipples for girls that develop VBH but it didn’t say if this was because the breast underneath was growing and stretching the nipples or if they were growing on their own. Either way, VBH is a scary medical condition that I hope my daughters never develop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAzx7dAFuJc
Isabelle Lanthier developed macromastia during pregnancy. This is an old Montel Williams clip posted on Youtube.
Is this ok to share Sara?
Me again.
Earlier I had said that I went to school with a girl who developed VBH. Guess what? I ran into her yesterday at my grocery store. She has a small patch of freckles on her forehead and the same blue eyes so she was easy to remember. She didn’t remember me but I knew her name and she was thrilled that someone from grade school knew who she was. She said that she had no friends at all and it was only when she started going to college, and I assume after her reduction, that people gave any attention to her.
She still looked very large chested but it was refreshing to see her so happy. Very different from the little girl I grew up with who sat in the back of the class. I didn’t ask her about her chest and come to think of it, I should have told her about your website. But she told me that she is a dental hygienist working at (-edited to maintain privacy-), only a few cities away from where we grew up.
We talked about our families briefly. I told her that I am married with 3 daughters, and she told me that she is single but had adopted both a boy and a girl a few years earlier.
Happy ending I guess and it is nice to see that she is doing well and has a little family of her own.
I came across this:
Patient 1 is a 14-year-old girl who developed macromastia 6 months after a liver transplant for α 1-antitrypsin deficiency. She had intense erythema as well as verrucous hyperplasia overlying the breasts.
Patient 2 was a 12-year-old girl who experienced severe bilateral breast enlargement 4 months after beginning treatment for thyrotoxicosis. She had extreme tenderness, erythema, and edema of the breasts and was treated with tamoxifen citrate, with improvement of her symptoms. Although virginal breast hypertrophy is a rare disorder, the dermatologist may be asked to consult on the associated skin changes in these cases and should be aware of its existence. The definitive therapy is surgical, but until breast growth is stabilized, cutaneous manifestations need to be managed.
Scary stuff that some young girls deal with.
“With VBH, teenage girls experience enlargement of the nipples and their areola’s may change in color as they grow to cover the ever expanding breast.”
———
My neighbors daughter (14 years old) had this happen to her. Her parents thought she was pregnant and were furious at her.
The school nurse sent home a note with the girl one day urging her parents to see a doctor about possible VBH. Thankfully the nurse was right about VBH and quite helpful in getting the girl treatment and dealing with all the worries the family had.
Before treatment the girl was nearly e cup in size and still growing. The surgery stopped the growth and she continued school around a size C if I recall correctly.
I can’t imagine growing an entire cup size per week. How can you buy bras? That would be like a new bra every 3 or 4 days during growth spurts. Thankfully surgery can remove the tissue and the breasts usually stop growing from what I have read.
This condition is very rare. But when certain girls get it, it has to be a nightmare living with such large breasts. Me, living with tourettes syndrome was bad enough through out my life in school. I’ve read the replies by SnowSkifan, and I just feel really sorry for that woman and her life in school….been there, done that :-/
Here are two links concerning VBH. After reading the entire case studies, I have a greater respect for the human body and developmental stages of woman.
Case 1
Case 2
Thank you for the links Joshua, but they don’t seem to work. If they are pdf files, and you have them, please upload them somewhere else for everyone to read.
Thanks!
I’m sorry for the late reply. I have since had to reformat my computer and can no longer find the links. They were pretty graphic to say the least. I’ll do some more searching and see what I can come up with.
Thanks Josha - Do not worry about how graphic they are.
We will look at the files first before posting them for the public to see. If we need to we will post them with a warning. The girls and I appreciate all the help we can get these days Joshua.
The good news is that there is no evidence that links VBH to any form of Cancer. If the girl is old enough, a simple Vertical Bipedicle procedure can reduce her chest and prevent unwanted discomfort.
I would never trust a drug like Lupron Depot to manage my daughters growth. I know there are extreme cases of excessive hormone production is girls that can lead to problems, but the website Toosoon is very misleading.
It angers me that they show a childrens cartoon of a boy slightly taller than his friends who goes to the doctor the next day to get a perscription of an anti-hormonal growth drug.
While the company who sells the drug would probably claim that they are not responsible for an incorrect diagnosis by a quack doctor, we all know that there are many many doctors out there who have little interest in the healthcare of their patients.
A monthly injection of this drug into children for years can probably mean a pretty decent profit for the doctors and companies producing it.
And how do they know if a childs body will begin production of their growth hormones after treatment. Stunting a childs growth might have disasterous effects years later. Growth hormoes are also responsible for brain development. Why would we want a drug that could potentially slow brain development as well?
My cousin suffered from this I believe. Im not exactly sure if she was diagnosed with this specific diesease but she suffered from having really large breasts as a teenager. I remember her wearing 2 bra’s and then going thru extremes like taping down her breasts around her body. The social and physical affects can be tramatic.
I was always busty for my frame (5 feet tall) since age 11. 3 years ago, I had a miscarriage and have steadily grown in bra size. I was a DD and now I’m a G or GG depending on the bra. I’m actually skinnier now than then. 2 questions:
1)Is my miscarriage the reason for this?
2)Will breast reduction stop the growth?
-thank you
KMAC I have never heard of a miscarriage being a decisive factor in breast growth. The pregnancy itself might have induced breast growth but not the miscarriage. A breast reduction will stop the growth in most women but many doctors recommend a reduction only after the growth has stopped. For me, that wasn’t until I was twenty-five years old. See what your doctor says.
thank you suzzie jc.
I have read many many stories about women growing 2, 3, 4, or more cup sizes during pregnancy and keeping the size long after childbirth. Everything I have read leads me to believe that it is perfectly normal KMac. I am sure you are beautiful and healthy. If the growth does not stop, see what you doctor recommends but I wouldn’t worry much about your new size. Consider it a blessing and have fun with it. Happy Holidays to everyone here!
So what I am wondering is, is the gain in bust when you are pregnant hard to lose? I am a DD already, and I can’t bear to get any larger. I have considered a reduction when I am through having children.
I don’t know. I have ALWAYS been large breasted. I was the first to develop breasts in elementary school and it has been an uphill battle since then. When I was in high school was very skinny but my breasts were still huge-and disproportionate to my figure. I know that I have my mother’s figure and when I look at her, I am terrified of getting bigger. She doesn’t seem miserable or anything but I don’t know if I could live bigger. If they were proportionate, that would be another thing entirely I feel.
My breasts grew during my pregnancy but shrunk back to their original size shortly after. But my friend kept her size and is still a DD - went from a B to DD - many years later. And to confuse matters more, we know a women who shrunk to a smaller size after her pregnancy. So….I think every woman is different.
In high school sex-ed class we watched videos on macromastia and other disorders. Me being large chested - 36F - I was the butt of everyone’s jokes all semester long. Now of course I don’t have macromastia. My breasts stopped growing after high school. Macromastia, and yes I was worried for a while, is far more serious and troublesome to those inflicted. My big breasts were annoying but easy for me to live with but I have had friends much smaller who have had breast reductions. Unfortunately I never had too many friends to talk to about my breasts since everyone I knew was a smaller size. Even my mum was only a 36B. Not sure where these things came from. :)
Sometimes you just want to rant about them to other people and scream about how silly big breasts are!
Morris thanks for the link - A bit much to post here however. Not so much for what it contains but what dailymotion links to when viewing that video. Thanks for sharing!
One of the things that really ticks me off is the constant pressure to conform that our media pushes on us. I happen to prefer busty women, and more importantly I’m attracted to women who have the emotional strength to accept their bodies the way they are. If I ever dated a woman with gigantomastia, I swear I’d treat her with respect. Why can’t a woman simply be curvy? Let them stare all they like! Time and again I see women on tv that essentially look like young boys. This is medically unhealthy, dammit. Did you know that the majority of Hollywood stars are severely underweight?
Honestly, I’ve never cared about the body weight of the women I’ve dated. As long as it isn’t a health hazard, I don’t give a hoot. Ladies, be proud of your curves & bust. From a male’s POV, the more sensitive territory I get to play with to prolong foreplay, the better. That having been said, it’s much more important that she’s intelligent, and genuinely good hearted as well as emotionally healthy.
Every time I see a weight loss commercial or “women’s” magazines at the check out counter, I grow disgusted. Sure, we must all watch our weight to a certain extent, but remember, no worthwhile man is that damned picky about a woman’s looks. It’s far more attractive if she’s assertive, intelligent & feels attractive. Hell, introduce yourself & ask HIM for a date for a change. I guarantee you that any man whose brain won’t melt when a busty lady smiles at him has a screw loose.
Not that this will make you feel any better, Scott, but most women who are always on a diet, those who desparately try to conform to the Hollyweird ideal - they don’t do it for men. They do it to impress other women. For the most part, women are far more vicious in their criticizm of other women than most men ever will be. (But they still blame it on “the patriarchy,” of course.)
And it doesn’t stop when one leaves high school - it just becomes more subtle.
You’re absolutely right - it takes a certain level of emotional strength and self-sufficiency to not only accept but be happy with the way you are. Not looking at “women’s” magazines, the ones who have headlines saying “How to lose 20 pounds in two weeks” AND “how to make the richest, most addictive chocolate mousse ever!” is, in my opinion, a good place to start. :-D
The mixed messages I got from media when I was a child were crazy. My best friend from middle school had VBH and got a reduction when she was fifteen to stop it. Her growth spurts were just crazy. She would grow two or three cup sizes every summer and was the talk of our school every year. I remember how much she hated gym class.
Love your website Sara! I am going to find my old friend again and see how she is doing. Last I heard she was attending college nearby. If I can get in touch with her I will let her know about hiddenfeet and maybe she can share some stories.
The media likes to put us in neat little boxes. Look at the runways and the stick models they use to show off their idea of what a woman looks like. I used to look at the usual teen magazines as I was growing up - drooling over the pictures of the small-breasted girls wearing clothes that I knew I would never in a million years fit into as I was struggling with my very large breasts. NEVER an article addressed to me and my types of how to dress or what to wear to minimize the appearance of my breasts.
I remember being 12 or 13 looking at an article about bras in one of the teen magazines. Everything showed was lacy, frilly, had ribbons on them, were on AA or A cup models. Here I was, stuffed into a D cup “industrial” grandma type bra just to keep my breasts from bouncing and getting in my way and crying over the article wishing for one of those pretty bras that I just couldn’t have.
Gym class was the worst. I had to wear a sports bra and changing from my regular bra to my sports bra was such a challenge for me. None of my friends even owned a sports bra and they just could not understand. Girls can be so cruel sometimes. If you don’t fit the mold that is established by the magazines, you are totally “uncool” and all by yourself.
This site is a wonderful safe place for girls who have hiddenfeet to learn from others and share their experiences. THANK YOU!! I just wish it had been here when I was that struggling 12 or 13 year old.