THE FEMALE SEX ORGANS: BREASTS

In other societies other parts of the body are considered to be a greater ‘turn-on’ but the breasts have eclipsed almost all of these in the West, and a woman’s most easily observed signs of sexual arousal take place in her breasts.

Whilst about one third of men have some kind of hang-up about their penis size, about

three-quarters of all women are, according to one survey, dissatisfied with their breasts. This has come about partly because of the advertising world’s emphasis on a rather particular type of breast. Whilst it is probably true that men tend to prefer (and probably have been conditioned to prefer) large-breasted women, the variety of taste is wide and, anyway, no thinking man judges a woman solely by her breast size. There is no evidence that big-breasted women enjoy sex or breast-play any more than do their smaller-breasted sisters.

Interestingly enough, it seems that society’s ideal breast image is slowly changing anyway. The ideal woman as currently portrayed by the media is neither very slim nor very curvy. Her breasts are neither particularly big nor particularly small.

Breast pain is very common indeed among women of all ages. One UK study found that about two thirds of women had had it at some time in their lives and that about one third had their daily and sexual lives disturbed by it.

More than half of sufferers don’t seek medical help because they think that they’ll be treated as neurotic women but the condition is real enough and causes a lot of unnecessary suffering.

There are three types of breast pain. The first occurs cyclically, gets better with the menopause and does quite well with hormone treatment. The second is non-cyclical, tends to go on after the menopause and can be difficult to treat. And the third is really a type of cartilage problem in the chest underlying the breast and simply mimics breast pain.

Many women who have breast pain worry that it might be a cancer but it very rarely is and the vast majority can be reassured fairly easily on this point.

Stopping the Pill can help some women, as can stopping smoking and cutting right down on the amount of fatty foods they consume. Evening primrose oil is a proven cure in about half of all cyclical cases and a combination of this plus changes in life style listed above can greatly enhance this success rate.

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