# How much do women's breasts weigh?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 30, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952 "2004-09-30T23:32:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/21 "2004-10-01T13:29:16Z")
When I was much younger I knew a girl who had huge breasts. She was constantly teased and was always in pain from the weight and her bra straps digging into her shoulders. She couldn’t wait until she was 18 to have the surgery. I think she was actually 19 by the time she could get the surgery and she had 4 pounds taken off each side and still had c-cups. She was ecstatic.
I always thought 8 pounds total was a huge amount, I can’t even imagine 20 pounds of breasts.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/22 "2004-10-01T13:52:44Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#):
>
> Umm, 36-38 has nothing whatsoever to do with breast size. That’s just the size of her ribcage. The letters tell you about actual breast size. Basically, each progressive letter means an extra inch difference in the circumference of the ribs versus the bust.
Well, yes and no. DD means the measurement from around the nipples is 5 inches more than the ribcage measurement. If you’re a 38DD, your ribcage measurement is 38 and your bust measurement is 43. If you’re a 30DD (I was, for a while, and \*man \* is it a hard size to find!), your ribcage is 30 and bust 35. But that 5 inches on a small frame \*seems \* much bigger. By contrast, a 48DD is a fat woman with relatively small breasts.
My doctors were tracking my back pain for years in an effort to get our insurance to pay for a reduction when I was fully grown. I had back pain (lower back, mostly) from the age of 11, when I was a DD cup. When we finally had all the paperwork ready, a friend of mine took a training in a bodywork technique called Structural Therapy (similar to Rolfing, but with less pain) and asked me to be his practice model. Through ten sessions of this work, my back pain disappeared entirely. It was amazing. What he found was that my legs weren’t straight underneath me (orthepedists refer to this as the Q-angle) and that my lower back was actually being pulled into a scoliosis to compensate, and that’s where the pain was coming from. X-rays backed this theory up - there was indeed a very slight functional scoliosis that none of the doctors had noticed. Once my friend worked in the tissue and got my legs straighter, the pain was gone!
So, the pain wasn’t caused by my humongo-boobs after all, the surgery was scrapped, and 5 years later, I’m still pain free! I feel like a freakin’ infomercial, but I’m so happy with avoiding surgery.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/23 "2004-10-01T13:54:06Z")
My wife is a D cup. Hers weigh about three pounds each. We determined this by having her stand on the scale…noting the weight…and then having me “assist” from behind and noting the weight difference. And no, I did not have to be told to let go.
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### Author:  [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/24 "2004-10-01T13:59:16Z")
Sorry, I had no idea the number doesn’t mean anything in terms of size. I look at bra sizes as a monkey might look at quantum mechanics.
> [@Evil One](#):
>
> My wife is a D cup. Hers weigh about three pounds each. We determined this by having her stand on the scale…noting the weight…and then having me “assist” from behind and noting the weight difference. And no, I did not have to be told to let go.
This is how we, um, measured my GF. I doubt it’s a very accurate measuring system but of course it’s lots of fun 😃
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### Author:  [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/25 "2004-10-01T13:59:30Z")
**WhyNot** , you were a DD when you were only eleven years old? :eek: That’s gotta be…unpleasant for an eleven-year old, no doubt.
A 30DD? Wow, that must have made them look enormous. I hope you enjoy them! And congrats on getting rid of the back pain!
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### Author:  [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/26 "2004-10-01T14:03:50Z")
My friend used to work at a bowling alley. After hours, we used the bowling ball scale to give it a try. (Yes, we’d been drinking.)
My friend, an F-cup, weighed each breast at roughly twelve pounds. My own DD’s were about nine and a half.
And **WhyNot** , I understand your pain, I was a D-cup in fourth grade. None of the other girls were even wearing bras yet. _sigh_
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/27 "2004-10-01T14:06:23Z")
> [@Incubus](#):
>
> **WhyNot** , you were a DD when you were only eleven years old? :eek: That’s gotta be…unpleasant for an eleven-year old, no doubt.
>
> A 30DD? Wow, that must have made them look enormous. I hope you enjoy them! And congrats on getting rid of the back pain!
Yeah, it looked really weird. The reason it was 30 was that I wasn’t finished growing skeletally yet, but the hormones kicked in early and fast! I hated it! Of course, I got teased no end, and the girls were far worse than the boys. 11 year old boys are mostly scared of boobies in real life - but the girls were vicious!
Once I grew into them, it looked much better. In high school, I was 38-25-38 and causing marital discord in many of my friend’s parent’s houses. Then I had a baby after senior year and never lost the weight. Ah, well. Still curvy as hell, just more jiggly.
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### Author:  [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/28 "2004-10-01T15:22:21Z")
That’s interesting- I thought breasts kind of grew in over time or something. As a guy, I know I sure as hell didn’t wake up one morning with something new 😉 everything showed up very gradually. Heck, I’m 24 and I’m _still_ waiting for a full beard to grow in! (it hasn’t changed much since I got it at 16 ☹ )
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### Author:  [@alphaFemale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaFemale)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/29 "2004-10-01T16:07:09Z")
mine happen to be large and _dense_. i’d estimate a pound and a half each? :o
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/30 "2004-10-01T16:47:31Z")
> [@Antigen](#):
>
> I’m not sure they’d approve of me whipping the girls out and weighing them on the analytical balance at work…
Those things are delicate. You don’t want to bust it.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/31 "2004-10-01T16:49:58Z")
> [@Incubus](#):
>
> I decided to put this here, since there is probably a lot of variation between different women, so there might not be an entirely factual answer to this question.
>
> I know some woman are troubled by back pain because of large breasts. How much do they weigh to cause back pain? Would a similarly weighted backpack ‘counter’ the strain the breasts are exerting on a woman’s back?
I worked with a woman who had five lbs removed from each one, and she was still quite curvy.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/32 "2004-10-01T20:00:02Z")
> [@Wile E](#):
>
> I always thought 8 pounds total was a huge amount, I can’t even imagine 20 pounds of breasts.
Easy simulation you can perform at home: Put 20 lb. of books into a backpack. Then put the backpack on backwards.
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### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/33 "2004-10-01T21:05:50Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Easy simulation you can perform at home: Put 20 lb. of books into a backpack. Then put the backpack on backwards.
The books fell out. What did I do wrong?
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/34 "2004-10-01T23:42:45Z")
> [@Incubus](#):
>
> That’s interesting- I thought breasts kind of grew in over time or something. As a guy, I know I sure as hell didn’t wake up one morning with something new 😉 everything showed up very gradually. Heck, I’m 24 and I’m _still_ waiting for a full beard to grow in! (it hasn’t changed much since I got it at 16 ☹ )
They usually do. But you know that boy in seventh grade who grew 8 inches taller over the summer? Some bodies didn’t get the memo that growing is supposed to be a relatively gradual process with some faster periods. Not to mention that some girls begin to get breasts at 13 and others at 9, so the age might not tell you much about the quickness of growth.
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### Author:  [@bdandhr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdandhr)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/35 "2004-10-02T03:30:45Z")
Although I posted above that mine are teeny, they are not so teeny that I need to stuff my bras - that look is soooooo unnatural. I will only wear unpadded bras (thus risking the frequent nipple shirt :eek: ). I am not one of those women who feels they have to embellish.
Also - I thank my size because I do not have that hump-back that some endowed women have.
I would guess my breasts at way less than a half-pound each (just off the top of my head), but they have never failed me yet!!!
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/36 "2004-10-02T03:58:06Z")
Sorry-I got hung up on the URL for Breasttalk. I’m thinking of Tom and Ray recast as OB/Gyn doctors on NPR taking calls from female listeners about their breasts. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/37 "2004-10-02T03:58:38Z")
> [@bdandhr](#):
>
> Although I posted above that mine are teeny, they are not so teeny that I need to stuff my bras - that look is soooooo unnatural. I will only wear unpadded bras (thus risking the frequent nipple shirt :eek: ).
Nipples are evil. I think mine are plotting world domination. I never thought of wearing padded bras to keep them from showing, though. I simply assumed I was going to go through life with friends always asking me if I’m cold.
I now have an urge to weigh my breasts, using scientific methods as outlined above.
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### Author:  [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/38 "2004-10-02T15:30:06Z")
I can’t believe I did this but. . . [my breasts](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/themermaid/sparklycleavage.jpg) are a 42DD. I just weighed each one separately then together on a digital scale placed on the counter. The cold hard numbers are
Left, 3.5 lbs; right, 4.0 lbs, together 7 lbs.
My nips respond to the cold more since I got them pierced. It’s like the metal conducts the cold deeper or something. JFTR, my posture is excellent, no humpback here.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/39 "2004-10-13T23:23:37Z")
Didn’t Bette Midler have a routine about weighing her breasts on a postal scale. I forget the punchline, somethibng to the effect of how much money it would cost to mail that amount of weight.
Sir Rhosis
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### Author:  [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-womens-breasts-weigh/266952/40 "2004-10-14T01:17:57Z")
My L cups are about 15 lbs each.
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