I've had a fund since my twenties, because my girls are my biggest vanity. I'm planning to have them lifted and tucked and maybe a little bit of extra popped in. (Not sure about the extra. I'll have that discussion in another 10 years.)

How much extra time do I get for my vanity with surgery to restore Cooper's droopers? I know that anything extra will be there until I die, so you have to plan around that. . .but, what are the stats on surgery to just reverse gravity for a while? (I'm getting it done. No question about that one. I'm just curious what exactly this surgery will get me in terms of my morbid fear of losing sexual attractiveness of the favorite part of my body.)

Great article!

Creeped me out, no end. (See letter above for explanation.) But it was a great, well-written article!

I'm going to bed now. . .

gross

'nuff said.

Everybody's boobs droop with time.

Hmm...

I am GRIPPED with ennui. I am FILLED with horror. I am a gray hag rotting uselessly on a skeleton...oh my life is ooooooooover...

not.

Jeez Lou-eez. If somebody at Salon can't write a joyous celebration of the aging &/or old body, I am verklempt.

My mother had her large, beautiful breast cut off at age 94. She was pretty philosophical about it. Kind of, feh. Glad they caught it. Mostly, she's annoyed she had to quit driving that year.

Dang I wish I could rattle the jerky editorial knee...

I have a unique perspective on this--I'm the flattest adult woman I've ever met who isn't a cancer survivor. I nursed two babies fat and happy well into their toddlerhoods, so I'm healthy, just not blessed with boobs. (My smart-ass brother was convinced my babies would starve--good thing he was wrong).

I knew two women almost as flat as I--and both had augmentation after I met them, in their 20s.

So writer and friends, be glad you have some to start with. In a breast-obsessed culture, I've had to count my blessings (many) and hold my chin up.

If I thought it would help, I might try to gain weight (I'm 5'7" and 125 pounds). But I know from being slightly heavier that it wouldn't help. I could be 400 pounds and STILL be a AA. A less attractive, less healthy AA.

I've not seriously toyed with the augmentation idea--my dh says he'd rather use the money to go to Europe together, or one of us to get another degree.

I'd like to think that if I ever meet someone more flat-chested than I (hard to do, yes), she will think, "Here's a pretty, well-adjusted mom/wife/professional who's making this work." If one of our daughters ever comes to us very unhappy about some aspect of her physical self, I don't want to feel a hypocrite saying, "You're beautiful--embrace your uniqueness."

I've never seen this subject dealt with before, and one DOES have to deal with it in front of the mirror every day, particularly when one has migrated from gravity-defying Cs to overloaded D cups after nursing. My only hint of what's to come was having seen what my mother's chest looked like when she was about the age I am now, and... yeah. So "folds" and crepe-cleavage are next? Oy. Guess it's better to be prepared.

(Oh, but we can't discuss it because it grosses out the kind of guys who read articles like this just to knock women for any- and everything. We must be mindful of their feelings.)

Something that would be helpful at least to some of us in hotter climes: You get skin problems underneath as you get older, especially in hot weather. I knew they'd droop eventually, but... zits? What's up with that and is there any way to avoid it?

Hmmm. My weight is nearly the same as it was in high school. I have not had children. No augmentation. I went from a healthy C cup in high school to a double D cup in my mid thirties.

When do they start flattening out? I won't miss the backaches.

just go ask your doctor for hormones. I happen to be annoyed by the fact that my boobs are bigger from using them, as I ride horses and there's nothing worse than trying to keep them strapped down and under control. Now, I never had children, so this may be a factor in my boobs still looking young and sprightly at 50 years of age. So, bottom line, if you're still hoodwinked into craving breast based attention from others, don't have kids and do take hormones. However, if you've acquired an ounce of self respect, than you probably know that being heralded because of a couple of glorified sweat glands is the embracing of misogynist oppression at its lowest ebb.

5'8", 125ish, workout freak. Two kids later and I am in VS cursing that tape measure like, who stole a cup size? But looking around at all these blow up doll/porn star fake boobs that are way too high on these little frames, well, I'll take my B's and be just fine thanks. From what this article says, in 10 years I'll have A's and so on. Good thing Six isn't a porn star. In the real world, natural is healthy, attractive, and much less distracting.

Loved the article, a bit of scientific humor, so refreshing! Thanks RJG for making this topic so accessible.

"However, if you've acquired an ounce of self respect, than you probably know that being heralded because of a couple of glorified sweat glands is the embracing of misogynist oppression at its lowest ebb."

In a multisyllabic, overwritten, vitrolic kinda' way, don't'cha think?

Oh, and I already plan on the hormone route. I know there's some risks involved, but phehm, that's 15 or 20 years away if my b-mother's timing is the same as mine. Already do the exercise bit, thanks. I don't plan on letting the wrath of someone I don't know and would probably dislike deter me from enjoying my own body.