The breast is the upper ventral region of the torso of a primate, in left and right sides, which in a female contains the mammary gland that secretes milk used to feed infants.
Both men and women develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. However, at puberty, female sex hormones, mainly estrogen, promote breast development, which does not occur in men, due to the higher amount of testosterone. As a result, women's breasts become far more prominent than those of men.
During pregnancy, the breast is responsive to a complex interplay of hormones that cause tissue development and enlargement in order to produce milk. Three such hormones are estrogen, progesterone and prolactin, which cause glandular tissue in the breast and the uterus to change during the menstrual cycle.
Each breast contains 15–20 lobes. The subcutaneous adipose tissue covering the lobes gives the breast its size and shape. Each lobe is composed of many lobules, at the end of which are sacs where milk is produced in response to hormonal signals.
Read more about Breast: Etymology, Development
Other articles related to "breasts, breast":
... The woman is pictured with an oriental style hat and bare breasts ... She is making the gesture to cover her left breast, or to turn it with her hand, and is illuminated by a strong artificial light coming from the external ... It has been suggested that the right hand on the left breast reveals a cancerous breast tumour disguised in a classic pose of love ...
... Research failed to establish any noticeable benefit and some phytoestrogens may present a breast cancer risk ... Plant estrogen intake in early adolescence may protect against breast cancer later in life ... The potential risks of isoflavones on breast tissue in women at high risk for breast cancer is still unclear ...
... of the post-partum volume losses of fat and milk-gland tissues, and the occurrence of breast ptosis ... the degrees of laxness of the suspensory Cooper’s ligaments and of the breast skin-envelope (mild, moderate, severe, and pseudo ptosis) — determine the applicable restorative surgical approach for lifting ... Grade I (mild) breast ptosis can be corrected solely with breast augmentation, surgical and non-surgical ...
... Mastopexy (Greek μαστός mastos “breast” + -pēxiā “affix”) is the mammoplasty procedure for correcting the size, contour, and elevation of sagging breasts upon the chest ... In a breast-lift surgery to re-establish an aesthetically proportionate bust for the woman, the critical corrective consideration is the tissue viability of the nipple-areola ... The breast-lift correction of a sagging bust is a plastic surgery operation that cuts excess tissues (glandular, adipose, skin), overstretched suspensory ligaments, and excess skin from ...
... In Christian iconography, some works of art depict women with their breasts in their hands or on a platter, signifying that they died as a martyr by having their breasts severed one example of this is Saint Agatha of ...
Famous quotes containing the word breast:
“O what to me the little room
That was brimmed up with prayer and rest;
He bade me out into the gloom,
And my breast lies upon his breast.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“If in the world there be more woe
Than I have in my heart,
Whereso it is, it doth come fro,
And in my breast there doth it grow,”
—Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?–1542)
“The forehead and the little ears
Have gone where Saturn keeps the years;
The breast where roses could not live
Has done with rising and with falling.”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)