Hypertrophy of Breast - Reported Instances - Gigantomastia

Gigantomastia

Gigantomastia occurs in 1 out of every 28,000 to 100,000 pregnancies. It can also affect men, although very rarely. One early case study dates to 1670. The patient died four months after the onset of enlargement. One breast removed after the woman's death weighed 64 pounds (29 kg).

On April 17, 1848, a 42-year-old woman named Lu-shi was treated for hypertrophy in a Chinese hospital. She was treated by a missionary physician. On December 24, 1849, the left breast, measuring 2 feet 2.5 inches (0.673 m) in circumference, and weighing 6 pounds (2.7 kg), was removed in a procedure lasting three and a half minutes. The right breast was removed one month later. It measured 2 feet (0.61 m) in circumference and weighed 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg).

One of the most severe cases of macromastia reported in the world medical literature was from Ilorin in Nigeria. In 2007, Dr Ganiyu Adebisi Rahman and his colleagues reported the case of a 26-year-old woman who presented with massive swelling of her breasts and bilateral axillary swellings, both of six years duration. Dr Rahman led a team of surgeons in Ilorin to perform a total bilateral excision of the hypertrophied axillary breasts and bilateral breast amputation with composite nipple-areola complex graft of the normal position of the breasts. The total weight of the breast tissues removed was 44.8 kilogrammes

In the October 2002 Journal of Reproductive Medicine, Dr. N. Agarwal with three other doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi reported on a 24-year-old woman who was pregnant with her second child. During her 19th week of pregnancy, she experienced a "massive bilateral breast enlargement." She was treated for six months after her child was born before her breasts were reduced to their normal size.

In 2005, a woman reported that at puberty her breasts grew from nothing to a C cup in one month. When she became pregnant for the first time, her breasts increased two cup sizes in a few days. Immediately after her first birth, her breasts grew three cup sizes. After her second child was born, her breasts increased six cup sizes. After her third childbirth, they grew 10 cup sizes, and after her fourth child was born, they grew nine cup sizes. In this instance, the swelling abated about 10 days after childbirth, but her bra cup size remained E to a G for the next year. About one year postpartum, her breasts rapidly atrophied to AA cup size.

Another extreme case was observed in 2008 in Maria Vittoria Hospital in Turin, Italy, where the amount removed from both breasts was 38 kilograms (84 lb). The growth occurred during puberty making it a case of juvenile gigantomastia, but the patient did not seek treatment until the age of 29. Another extreme case was observed on August 28, 2003, when a 24-year-old woman was admitted to the Clinical Center Skopje in Macedonia with gigantomastia of pregnancy and the amount later removed from both breasts was 33 kilograms (73 lb) total. A second case in Macedonia was reported when the breasts of a 30-year-old woman from a remote mountain village in eastern Macedonia suddenly grew to more than 30 kilograms (66 lb) total.

As the disorder becomes more widely known, media reports have increased. French Canadian Isabelle Lanthier appeared on Montel Williams' talk show, where she told how her chest grew from 34 inches (86 cm) to 52.5 inches (133 cm) in five months during her pregnancy. Her breast growth was incipient to pregnancy. At their largest, one breast weighed 15 pounds (6.8 kg) and the other 12 pounds (5.4 kg). Her husband custom made a special bra to support her breasts. In 2007, a Chilean TV station covered the story of 32-year-old Jasna Galleguillos from Antofagasta, who experienced ongoing back pain, making everyday tasks very difficult to perform. She underwent breast reduction surgery to relieve her pain. Surgeons removed 4.250 kilograms (9.37 lb) from one breast and 3.330 kilograms (7.34 lb) from the other breast.

On October 29, 2009, the Philippine television network GMA News and Public Affairs, producers of Wish Ko Lang (Just My Wish) hosted by Vicky Morales, profiled the story of Pilma Cabrijas, a 30-year-old woman afflicted by gigantomastia. The woman was told by a folk healer that her condition may have been caused by a curse. The measured bust circumference without appropriate bra support was 63 inches (160 cm). The weight of her breasts was not reported in detail, but seemed to weigh "as much as two children". She had breast reduction surgery performed, but her breasts regrew. The producers of Wish Ko Lang paid for additional surgery.

Nude model Norma Stitz is exploiting this condition and is officially named as being the person with the largest natural breasts by the Guinness Book of Records with breasts weighing 35 pounds (16 kg) each.

In 1997 it was reported in Hunterdon County, New Jersey that a 29 year old woman underwent reduction surgery with breasts weighing in excess of 26 pounds each, more than 20% of her total body weight. As reported in an article in Hunterdon Women's Health, she underwent periods of hypertrophic growth throughout her twenties, and with increasing frequency from ages 25 to 28, and at one point increased three cup sizes within a one week period.