Archive for November, 2008

Swedish Officials Remove Transvestism from List of “Disorders”

In a move welcomed by the transvestite community in Sweden, the government is removing transvestism, the act of being a transvestite, which is a man who has converted into a woman via hormone therapies, male transgender breast enlargement, and surgeries possibly, from it’s list of disorders so as not to create more prejudice for this often misunderstood segment of the population. 

They also removed fetishism and sadomasichism from their list of sexual disorders in an effort to make things more equal amongst those with sexual preferences that are considered out of the “norm” according to society at large.

Men who have transformed themselves into more or less biological women often feel that they are misunderstood by society.  They feel that they do not have a true understanding amongst the society they live in to be able to comfortably live openly, and often feel that they are discriminated against. With a society that is now a bit more understanding, and a move toward acceptance and political correctness, as well as pushes for diversity, they can now feel a little more included.

The committee who decided on removing transvestism from the list of sexual disorders has also decided to take this to the WHO, or World Health Organization in an effort to get it removed more broadly.  The representatives for the transvestite community find that this is a welcome move and want to feel like they are more included and understood by the society at large.

Men who want to enlarge their breasts to look and feel like a woman’s breasts without getting surgery should look into these products for transgender breast growth for natural ways to increase breast size, volume, and overall bra size. 

 

The Migraine/Breast Cancer Connection

There have been so many studies done on breast cancer to this day that it’s hard to keep track of some of the more seemingly random ones that link breast cancer to a certain medication, an event, a lifestyle, a type of food consumed, weight, diet, and the list goes one and on.  This one is very interesting though, and I always find myself wondering how they make the connection when they do make strange, seemingly unrelated connections like this.

This newest study is one on breast cancer as it is related to migraine headaches.  Migraines are very serious headaches that range in symptoms from dizziness to vertigo to throwing up and seeing things like spots and bright colors.  Women seem to be much more prone to developing migraines than men do for some reason, so the thought is that estrogen or other female dervied hormones may be partly to explain the discrepancy between the sexes.  But I digress.

The basic principal of the latest finding is that women who have migraine headaches normally have a much lower incidence rate of breast cancer.  Go figure!  The finding is significant because women who have migraine headaches as a normal occurrence in their lives tend to have about a thirty percent less risk of developing breast cancer than women who have never had migraine headaches. 

In what seems like unrelated events, researchers are now looking for ways that this new information can help them develop preventive breast cancer measures, care and guidelines, and may even help in the development of better treatments for those that already have the disease. 

They are looking at the fact that breast cancer is usually correlated with estrogen levels that are consistently too high in women, while women who suffer from migraines typically have chronically low levels of the female hormone. This may explain why women who are prone to getting migraines have less incidence of breast cancer, and they are further testing this theory.

Victoria’s Secret Bras Causing Welts, Hives on Some

It’s no ’secret’ that Victoria’s Secret is one of the biggest retailers of women’s undergarments, and they are especially known for offfering sexy, comfortable bras that supposedly are high quality.  Well, that last part is debatable since myself and several friends have bought expensive bras there and had them fall apart prematurely, but you get the point – Victoria’s Secret is built on a business model where they charge a premium for feminine, sexy underwear and they have ads going all the time that promote their well known, well endowed models. 

Heck, Gisele Bundchen, their most currently famous model, is a household name from being a Victoria’s Secret model, nicknamed the boobs from Brazil.  Well, one Ohio woman is suing the company for what she claims was damage done to her body from wearing their new Angels Secret Embrace and Very Sexy Extreme models of bra. 

The claim is that she broke out in hives and a rash from wearing the bra, so bad that she ended up getting sores and some of them blistered over.  When the bras were sent to a lab by her lawyers, they found that they had formaldehyde in them, and that their client was most likely allergic to formaldehyde. 

Formaldehyde is a chemical that is used to preserve things, of course not food, but more innocuous things such as body parts or animal parts for study.  Remember biology class in high school?  You probably got a few whiffs of this lovely chemical while in the lab for that class!  The spokesperson fro V.S. said that they understand a small amount of women have been affected by these bras and will help with the investigation as much as possible. 

ALCL Cancer Linked to Breast Implants?

Before I get into this story, let me make it clear that the doctors who performed the research that led them to conclude that a rare type of T cell cancer may be related to the silicone casing on breast implants, have already said that the odds of the cancer being directly linked and causing you real concern are incredibly low, so there is no need for alarm.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be further research though of course, as researchers want to find out for sure if there is a definitve and significant risk of developing this rare cancer that stems from having breast implants. 

Researchers had pulled women from a database that had over ten years of information compiled on women with a rare cancer called ALCL for short, and found that almost half of them also happened to have breast implants, which were put in for cosmetic reasons, not as a reconstructive surgery for cancer or any other problems fo the breast. 

This led them to further research if there was a link, which they did not really have the answer for, except that it was quite a coincidence that almost half of the women with an already incredibly rare cancer happened to have breast implants with silicone casing.  mind you, all breast implants, even the ones that are made of saline, are made still with a silicone casing since it is one fo the tougher materials that can stand the surroundings of the body and resist breakdown over years of enhancing the breasts. 

Because they did make these findings, but were unable to statistically link them to the breast implants without ruling out other data that could also be similar between these patients, they want to make further requests to study this occurrence a little more to understand it.  They do say that the numbers are so small to begin with that the odds are incredibly tiny that a woman with breast implants would be putting herself in any real harms way that they did not want to cause undue alarm in women with implants. 

Broken Economy, More Breast Implant Alternatives?

It seems that everyone is giving up something these days, in a world where our economy has unfortunately sucked away up to 30 to 40% of people’s retirement savings accounts, people are fearing for their jobs, and prices of food and living expenses (for once we are getting a relief on the gas prices at least, chalk one up for the American public), it’s no wonder that many women are putting off or canceling their hopes of cosmetic surgery.  One of the highest decreases lately has been in breast implants.

Breast augmentation surgeries cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the types of implants you are getting, the method of insertion, and the area in which you live.  Oh, and the surgeon’s reputation and prices usually have something to do with it as well.  Although there are still many women who want larger breasts and want to have breast augmentation surgeries, they are opting instead to either pursue breast implant alternatives or they are deciding to put the surgery off to a later date when they can better afford it.

There are many alternatives to breast implants that purportedly can help you to achieve larger and fuller breasts, but they may also help you to achieve the firmness of your breasts that you had before you breast fed a child or when you were younger.  Since a woman’s breasts lose thier density and therefore their firmness and begin to sag more with age, this leaves lots of women searching for ways to lift their breasts again and make them firmer.

Because of this a lot of women opt to go through what’s called a breast lift, where smaller breast implants are inserted, usually under the muscle, and these implants help to give a natural lift to the breast, making them go higher on the chest and not sag as much.  There are also a variety of breast enlargement pills from herbal to non herbal which help the body to further develop the breast tissue and create additional tissue when the body has gone through it’s stages of growth already, a sort of a re-initiating of the growth. 

Rigorous Exercise Protects Against Breast Cancer

Exercise, eat right, don’t smoke, don’t drink, and get your antioxidants!  These are all things that we hear over and over again when it comes to how, as women, we can help our bodies to avoid the most common of female cancers, and one of the most deadly cancers to women still today, which is breast cancer.  We can add vigorous exercise to our anti breast cancer repertoire, according to the latest research.

Is it really an big surprise though, that rigorous and regular exercise can help our bodies to fend off breast cancer?  Not really, since we actually know that exercise helps us in so many other ways that we have yet to discover it’s full range of benefits.  However, there are suggestions now according the latest research that it’s the really rigorous exercise that may help women fend off this cancer the best that helps most, such as running, doing heavy chores in the house, and swimming, anything where the heart rate is actually getting raised quite a bit and there’s a bit more stress than the body is used to.

It is especially true that lean, thinner women enjoy less rates of breast cancer than women with more body fat, and that exercise, especially the more vigorous type, helps to burn excess body fat off one’s frame, making them more lean and their body fat a lesser percentage of their overall composition. It has long been hypothesized that more body fat means higher levels of harmful and overloaded estrogens, which have been linked to the formation of breast cancer, so it makes sense that trimming that fat off wherever possible may cut risks.

The study was based off of questionnaires that found that the women who reported the most taxing exercise the most frequently also had the lesser rates of breast cancer, to the tune of an over ten percent difference, which is quite statistically significant considering that anything over double digits means something since we are just talking about one lifestyle factor difference between the two groups. 

Senator Dianne Wilkerson Stuffs Bribes Down Bra

Well, this is certainly an embarrassing gaffe, and one that is currently costing a Massachusetts state senator her job most likely, and even possibly doing some time for accepting bribes.  The senator was caught on camera under surveillance and by undercover detectives, accepting bribes totalling over $23,000 to help people get liquor licenses and other political favors or some things that needed a little “greasing of the palms” if you know what I mean.  FBI agents recently arrested her at her Boston Mass. home, and she has since been released on a fifty thousand dollar unsecured bond.

Senator Wilkerson did not make a plea in court yet, and her attorney did decline comment so far, but he hinted that she may have been targeted by law enforcement.  The case seems pretty open and shut since they have many stills of her accepting bribes, including the very damaging one of her stuffing a bribe down her shirt and then down her bra, but you never know what type of case the attorney will bring to the table to try to get his client off.

On the other hand, the prosecution is outlining everything that is wrong with this scenario and other scenarios like it, and that is that public service is an honor and a privelege and those that abuse it or use it for personal gain (other than of course a good salary, which motivates many, but most public servants/politicians are motivated by other things), should pay the price including and up to incarceration if the case so warrants.

Wilkerson could serve up to 30 years in jail and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in penalties if convicted, so let’s hope her attorney does a good job for her, and more importantly, let’s hope she learns her lesson and never does this again, and that she might serve as an example to other politicians who are thinking of taking bribes and other moneys and gifts in return for favors that are illegal due to their position of power.

3 Cups of Coffee a Day Can Lead to Breast Shrinkage?

Well, as if there were already not enough insecurity when it comes to women and breast size, there is another factor that apparently may affect your breast size, besides your genetics.  And it’s something that millions of us do every day.  We enjoy a cup for breakfast, we sometimes have it as a recreational break from the hustle and bustle. 

Heck, it’s even become a cool thing to go get on a date!  It’s drinking coffee, America’s favorite beverage right now, as can be attested by the immense success of Starbucks and other “gourmet” coffee makers and retail establishments where people flock to pay outrageous prices for foo foo coffee drinks. 

You may not need to worry about it if you’re a coffee drinker who doesn’t have more than three cups a day though, because researchers have only found the link between coffee consumption and breasts getting smaller in women who consume three or more cups daily.  However, one of the researchers did caution that the shrinking can be quite noticeable over a period of time, perhaps even shrinking some women down a cup size or so!

So, what do you think the mysterious mechanism might be that makes coffee an enemy of breast size (unless of course you are built like Dolly Parton and would welcome a little nonsurgical shrinkage to your breasts)?

I thought it might be the fact that coffee tends to speed up the metabolism, which could burn more fat, and hence shrink the breast tissue, but then I would think coffee would be used as a terrific weight loss device and it really isn’t.  Of course, your boobs do seem to be the first thing to shrink when you lose weight.  Then I thought it may also be something hormonal, like the coffee has something in it which supresses the estrogen which makes the breasts bigger?

 

Breast Reconstruction a Personal Choice After Cancer

Reconstructive surgery after mastectomies and double mastectomies from breast cancer are actually not as common as you thought (or maybe it’s just me that thought they were more common than they really are).  I was just reading that only almost 20% of women who have had radical mastectomies choose to have reconstructive breast surgery, which usually involves breast implants to fill out the area where the breast tissue was actually removed.

Many women actually don’t want their breasts to be reconstructed, perhaps a feeling of freedom sets in, some women actually say not having to worry about wearing a bra is nice, but others say that it was just more of a personal choice to not have something artificial put in to replace what was once theirs, or that they do not want to endure more invasive surgery or pain, which of course reconstructive surgery involves to a point.

There is no doubt that breast cancer treatments already do a number on a woman’s life.  Most breast cancer patients experience a foggy memory and difficulty concentrating, and they never regain that sometimes either.  They also suffer a hit because chemo, one of the most common treatments used for breast cancer in it’s more advanced stages, can cause the face to age because it takes estrogen levels down which makes the skin drier.  They also suffer through varying degrees of pain depending on how advanced their cancer has become. 

Not to mention the feeling that a part of them has been lost, for those women who have undergone more than a simple lumpectomy and have chosen either single or double mastectomies.  Having reconstructive surgery constitutes more trauma, and therefore some women want to forego it, which is a scenario I can easily understand as I’m sure anyone could.