NORMAL BREAST DEVELOPMENT

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What is normal breast development?

Breast development is a vital part of reproduction in the human female. Unlike other mammals, however, human females are the only ones who develop full breasts long before they are needed to nurse their offspring.

Breast development occurs in distinct stages throughout a woman's life, first before birth, and again at puberty and during the childbearing years. Changes also occur to the breasts during menstruation and when a woman reaches menopause.

The development and kinds of breast changes that take place are directly related to age. There are three phases of development: lobule development, which takes place between the ages of 10 and 25; glandular development, which is under the influence of menstrual hormones and occurs between the ages of about 13 and 45, and involution, or shrinkage of the milk ducts, which begins from about age 35 on.

When does breast development begin?

This first stage of development begins at about six weeks of fetal development with a thickening called the mammary ridge or the milk line. By six months of development this extends all the way down to the groin, but then regresses. At this time, solid columns of cells form from each breast bud, with each column becoming a separate sweat gland. Each of these has its own separate duct leading to the nipple. By the final months of fetal development, these columns have become hollow, and by the time a female infant is born, a nipple and the beginnings of the milk-duct system have formed.

What breast changes happen at puberty?

As a girl approaches adolescence, the first outward signs of breast development begin to appear. When the ovaries start to secrete estrogen, fat in the connective tissue begins to accumulate causing the breasts to enlarge. The duct system also begins to grow. Usually the onset of these breast changes is also accompanied by the appearance of pubic hair and hair under the arms.

Once ovulation and menstruation begin, the maturing of the breasts begins with the formation of secretory glands at the end of the milk ducts. The breasts and duct system continue to grow and mature, with the development of many glands and lobules. The rate at which breasts grow varies greatly and is different for each young woman.

Five Stages of Breast Development

1. Breasts during childhood

The breasts are flat and show no signs of development

2. Breast bud stage

3. Breast continue to grow

Breast become rounder and fuller

4. Nipple and areola form separate small mound.

Not all girls go through this stage

Some skip stage 4 and go directly to stage 5

5. Breast growth enters finial stage

What cyclical changes occur to the breasts during menstruation?

Each month, women experience fluctuations in hormones that make up the normal menstrual cycle. Estrogen, which is produced by the ovaries in the first half of the menstrual cycle, stimulates the growth of milk ducts in the breasts. The increasing level of estrogen leads to ovulation halfway through the cycle, and then the hormone progesterone takes over in the second half of the cycle, stimulating the formation of the milk glands. These hormones are believed to be responsible for the cyclical changes such as the swelling, pain, and tenderness that many women experience in their breasts just before menstruation.

During menstruation, many women also experience changes in breast texture, with breasts feeling particularly lumpy. These are the glands in the breast enlarging to prepare for a possible pregnancy. If pregnancy does not occur, the breasts return to normal size. Once menstruation begins, the cycle begins again.

What happens to the breasts during pregnancy and lactation?

Many physicians believe the breasts are not fully mature until a woman has given birth and produced milk. Breast changes are one of the earliest signs of pregnancy - a result of the pregnancy hormone, progesterone. In addition, the areolas (the dark areas of skin that surround the nipples of the breasts) begin to swell followed by the rapid swelling of the breasts themselves. Most pregnant women experience tenderness down the sides of the breasts and tingling or soreness of the nipples because of the growth of the milk duct system and the formation of the many more lobules.

By the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, the breasts are fully capable of producing milk. As in puberty, estrogen controls the growth of the ducts and progesterone controls the growth of the glandular buds. Many other hormones, such as follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin, oxytocin, and human placental lactogen (HPL) also play vital roles in milk production.

Other physical changes, such as the prominence of the blood vessels in the breast and the enlargement and darkening of the areola occur. All of these changes are in preparation for breastfeeding the baby after birth. 

Breasts During Breastfeeding and Weaning

During breastfeeding, the breasts are larger than before pregnancy and can appear quite full (they are full of milk). Of course, after a nursing session the fullness is much less. In general they are about the same size as during pregnancy, just varying in fullness according to the baby's feedings.

With weaning, the milk glands atrophy or shrink to almost nothing. This will make the breast look very empty. Remember, at lot of the fat left the breasts during pregnancy. After weaning, over the course of several months, the body will start depositing fat into the breasts again, and so gradually the breasts will regain their pre-pregnancy size or close to it.

However, that "fat back to breasts" does not happen to all women. Some women do end up with empty-looking breasts after weaning. You can consider it a mark of motherhood! That is, until the next pregnancy possibly comes along, and the cycle starts again: the milk glands develop, the ducts grow in length, etc.

Breast Development During Pregnancy 

Breasts grow in size considerably during pregnancy because of further growth of the milk ducts and milk producing glands.  Teenagers breasts are mostly fat, but during pregnancy that fat gradually disappears and gives space for the milk-producing system.

Also the areola enlargens and becomes darker, making a big contrast with the surrounding skin, as if really pointing out where the "nutrition center" is.  Thus the breasts will be fully mature and ready for their job, producing milk for the child.

What happens to the breasts at menopause?

By the time a woman reaches her late 40s and early 50s, menopause is beginning or is well underway. At this time, the levels of estrogen and progesterone begin to fluctuate, with levels of estrogen dramatically decreasing. This leads to many of the symptoms commonly associated with menopause. With this reduction in the stimulation by estrogen to all tissues of the body, including the breast tissue, there is a reduction in the glandular tissue of the breasts. Without estrogen, the connective tissue of the breast becomes dehydrated and inelastic, and the breast tissue, which was prepared to make milk, shrinks and loses shape. This leads to the "sagging" of the breasts often associated with women of this age.

Women who are on hormone replacement therapy may experience some of the premenstrual breast symptoms that they experienced while they were still menstruating, which can even include tenderness and swelling. However, if there was sagging of the breasts before menopause, this is not reversed with hormone replacement therapy.

Changes during Menopause

In menopause, the milk producing system – ducts and milk glands – shrink, and are replaced by fat (just like after weaning). That makes the breasts softer. Also the connective tissue loses strength, which makes the breasts sag more.

Teens Worry If Their Breasts Are Normal

As the following comments sent to this website show, teenagers do worry a lot about their breast size/shape/development, and many teen girls wish for bigger breasts:

Breast size is determined by your genes. You can look to your mom and other female relatives and get somewhat of an idea of what your breast size might end up being, though this is NOT a guarantee.

Another factor in breast size is how skinny/fat you are. As mentioned already, breasts have a lot of fat in them. The skinnier you are, the less fat your breasts contain and smaller they are. When you gain weight (or fat) in general, some of that fat will get deposited in your breasts, so that is why obese people will have bigger breasts. And if you lose weight (fat) from your body, some of that fat will be lost from your breasts, too. This explains why athletic girls often have small breasts - their body's fat content is fairly small. The same is of course true for anorexic girls.

Unfortunately, when you lose weight and your breasts will be smaller, they often end up sagging more, as the skin is already stretched but now there is less "stuff" to fill it. There is no sure way to prevent this.

Some girls end up being flat-chested - Flat-chested girls lack the fat in breasts but they have the milk producing system in there and can breastfeed. Please read our page about being flat-chested to learn more. Being flat-chested doesn't mean you have to get worried - but if you don't get your period by age 15, that is a sign of delayed puberty.

We hope knowing these facts will ease your mind off from worrying.  You may have heard or read these same facts about breast development elsewhere, too.  They are commonly known and commonly noted.  So the chances are you are developing just normally and there's no reason to be concerned.

Anorexia and Breasts

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Anorexia, bulimia, or severe dieting will cause the fat to disappear from breasts, and that is why breasts of an anorexic girl will look very small, or shrunken.

When such a girl is recovering and gaining weight again, fat gets deposited back to the breasts. However, it won't always be the same amount of fat as was there before.

The milk ducts and glands shouldn't be affected - if they had already developed! But if anorexia hits while the breasts are growing ducts and glands, then that development will stop since the starved body will stop producing hormones that drive that growth.

With anorexia, it is hard to say how things will go afterwards. Most girls become fertile again and resume menstruation, or continue their pubertal development if it wasn't finished, but some girls never gain their menstruation and fertility back even after recovery.

Maturity of the Breast

Once a young woman reaches puberty, and ovulation and the menstrual cycle begins, the breasts start to mature, forming real secretory glands at the ends of the milk ducts. Initially these glands are very primitive and may consist of only one or two layers of cells surrounded by a base membrane.

Between this membrane and the glandular cells are cells of another type, called myo-epithelial cells, these cells are the ones that contract and squeeze milk from the gland if pregnancy occurs and milk production takes place.

With further growth, the lobes of the glands become separated from one another by dense connective tissue and fat deposits. This tissue is easily stretched. This is where the natural enlargement formula comes in and allows the enlargement that normally occurs during pregnancy when the glandular elements swell and grow

The duct system grows considerably after conception and many more glands and lobules are formed. This causes the breast to increase in size as it matures to fulfill its role of providing food for the baby.

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Female Changes

Most women notice that just before menstruation their breasts enlarge and their nipples become sensitive and even painful. The texture of the breasts change and they become rather lumpy, with small discrete swellings that resemble orange pips in both texture and size. These lumps are glands in the breast which enlarge in preparation for pregnancy.

If pregnancy doesn’t occur, breasts return to their normal size and the glands become imperceptible to touch within a few days, ready for re-growth the next month. These changes in the breast are only one part of many changes that occur in the female body as the result of the monthly ebb and flow of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone.

Aging of the Breasts

As we get older, our breasts tend to sag and flatten; the larger the breasts, the more they sag. With the menopause there is a reduction in stimulation by the hormone oestrogen to all tissues of the body, including breast tissue; this results in a reduction in the glandular tissue of the breasts. So they loose their earlier fullness.

Regular exercise would have however prevented or slowed down the ageing process. Much of the connective tissue in the breast is composed of a fibrous protein called collagen, which needs oestrogen to keep it healthy. Without oestrogen, it becomes dehydrated and inelastic. Once the collagen has lost its shape and stretchability it "was" believed that it could not return to its former state or condition.