Calendar Girl Blog: Why Brafreedom
The problem ( and I say that with tongue in cheek) is simple. After 5 year's of sifting through piles of breast cancer information, attending a dozen conferences on the subject and listening to hundreds of breast cancer survivors, I know too much.
Specifically, but not limited to, I know too much to wear a bra every day of my life.
It's true that bra wearing and breast cancer incidence have never been linked by a scientific study. But here's the rub. There have not been any scientific studies about bra wearing. None. Nadda. So how do we know there is no connection?
Funny thing that is. We do know that scrotum and penis compression in tight pants and underwear can cause problems for boys and men. But tight, underwire, ill-fitting bras, worn by girls as early as 10 years of age until they reach their grave....gee, nope....nobodies setting up that study.
Rather than wait forever for some authority to bother giving bras a look see, I did my own study. It was simple. I asked myself which seemed more healthy and natural. On or off.
Calendar Girl will admit that the brafreedom stage of her life took courage, confidence and about 3 months to get used to. But now, 2 year's later, it would have to be a snowy day in hell, or a very particular outfit that would see her strap the pups into an over shoulder boulder holder.
Calendar Girl
Calendar Girl Gift Idea: Purchase a 2006 Breast of Canada Calendar for your Breast Friend.
Specifically, but not limited to, I know too much to wear a bra every day of my life.
It's true that bra wearing and breast cancer incidence have never been linked by a scientific study. But here's the rub. There have not been any scientific studies about bra wearing. None. Nadda. So how do we know there is no connection?
Funny thing that is. We do know that scrotum and penis compression in tight pants and underwear can cause problems for boys and men. But tight, underwire, ill-fitting bras, worn by girls as early as 10 years of age until they reach their grave....gee, nope....nobodies setting up that study.
Rather than wait forever for some authority to bother giving bras a look see, I did my own study. It was simple. I asked myself which seemed more healthy and natural. On or off.
Calendar Girl will admit that the brafreedom stage of her life took courage, confidence and about 3 months to get used to. But now, 2 year's later, it would have to be a snowy day in hell, or a very particular outfit that would see her strap the pups into an over shoulder boulder holder.
Calendar Girl
Calendar Girl Gift Idea: Purchase a 2006 Breast of Canada Calendar for your Breast Friend.
posted by Sue Richards at 10:19 AM
3 Comments:
Here is the devils advocate in me typing...
WHile it may be true that there are no scientific studies of health outcomes and bra use, this is not entirely due to a lack of drive on the part of scientific communities...
When doing a GOOD study you have to have both treatment and control groups (ie with and wothout bras) that are COMPARABLE. Now this is where the difficulty begins. if you did this study comparing pre-existing bra and no bra groups you would likely be comparing very culturally different populations.
This means that you would not know if the bras were your major contributing factor or if it was diet, excercise, genetics, enviromental factors, climate, other endemic infections, diseases or treatments... or any xcombination there of and the list goes on. And if you did manage to find two well matched groups it would be unlikely that you would have enough of them to make any valid and significant conclusions.
Because of the cultural attachemnt we have to bras(we all remember our 1st one! guys i'm sure you remember the 1st one you ever unhooked etc etc...) It would be very difficult to impliment a study where we chose the subjects and placed them randomly in a bra/no bra catgory. The fact that the study would likely have to be life long and include enough people that it could accomodate the study drop outs, and other issues of loss to follow up makes it a logistical nightmare.
Another confounding factor in our understanding of the effect of bras on our health is that there are many kinds of bras and as we age or times change we switch. The complexity of it all is crazy-making!
I realise that it is often frustrating that the scientific community seems to neglect womens issues and concerns, but in some circulmastances there really is a pretty good reason why some one has yet to pick up the ball and run with it...
Now, humans are a strange breed of mammals that keep our breasts even when they are not in use, so animal studies don't seem an option and i would hate to think what animal rights activists would do with a room full of monkeys wearing bras...
ANy way sorry for the rant, I am an epidemiologist... I study the complexity of events that effect health. and i am a women, so this kind of issue touches close to my heart in 2 ways...
Erin,
Excellent comment....and still....no studies means no one really knows if bras are a healthy choice.
Me and my pups are now choosing The Precautionary Principal on bra wearing. Besides the poor things were locked away in their underwire cages for 30 years.
Enough.
Free the pups!!!!
Calendar Girl
I agree with the let them go pricipal, mine are often out in public un-chaperponed. I makes me feel like a secret agent... a secret between friends... I just worry sometimes taht people think lack of evidence is a conspiracy and don't really realise what whould be involved in finding an answer...
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