# Is Male Breast Milk As Nutritious As Female Breast Milk?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-male-breast-milk-as-nutritious-as-female-breast-milk/298971>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 12, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-male-breast-milk-as-nutritious-as-female-breast-milk/298971 "2005-04-12T15:02:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-male-breast-milk-as-nutritious-as-female-breast-milk/298971/1 "2005-04-12T15:02:20Z")

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As I understand it, it is possible for a doctor to give a man hormone injections that will enable him to produce and expel milk from his breasts, which he could use to feed his child. Doing this would have the advantage of supplementing the mother’s milk while simultaneously enhancing father/son bonding.

Is the milk that is expressed from the male breast nutritionally equivalent to that which is expelled from the female breast? I understand that there likely wouldn’t be as much milk produced, but is what is produced as nutritious per pint??

Also, is it possible to induce lactation in a healthy male by using a breast pump or through stimulation of the nipples?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-male-breast-milk-as-nutritious-as-female-breast-milk/298971/2 "2005-04-12T15:10:36Z")

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I highly doubt the results would be nutritionally comparable - male nipples are (AFAIK) redundant in all mammals; even if you could trick them into producing _something_, it’s unlikely to be the same process of production as happens in the female breast, which has been subject to continual selection to keep it working properly.

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**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-male-breast-milk-as-nutritious-as-female-breast-milk/298971/3 "2005-04-12T15:24:35Z")

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I’m not sure that I could characterize that as “enhancing” the father/son bonding process. Most of us probably will appreciate the things our fathers have done to aid in our upbringing even without the knowledge that he also provided us with suckle.

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**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-male-breast-milk-as-nutritious-as-female-breast-milk/298971/4 "2005-04-12T15:39:34Z")

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Suddenly I remember the episode of _Family Guy_ where Peter is embracing his feminine side and decides to try and breast feed Stewie. The baby’s reaction was priceless.

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-male-breast-milk-as-nutritious-as-female-breast-milk/298971/5 "2005-04-12T17:00:24Z")

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> [@Lord Ashtar](#):
>
> Suddenly I remember the episode of _Family Guy_ where Peter is embracing his feminine side and decides to try and breast feed Stewie. The baby’s reaction was priceless.

Especially _after_ he pulled Peter’s boob hair from his mouth!