# Nipple rocks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910 "2008-10-21T17:47:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/1 "2008-10-21T17:47:52Z")
When I was going through puberty I got what some people call nipple rocks. Small, hard masses behind my nipples that were mildly painful. Does anyone know what those things are exactly and why they occur? ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/2 "2008-10-21T18:04:47Z")
I found the answer. It’s called Pubertal Gynecomastia in case anyone cares. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/3 "2008-10-21T18:07:30Z")
I’ll be darned- I used to get those things too and have since forgotten about them. Good thing they’re evidently harmless. ---
**Author:** ![SharkB8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/4 "2008-10-21T19:48:51Z")
And regular gynecomastia, if I remember correctly, is fancy talk for “man boobs.” I remember those little suckers…and they were mad painful… Mine haven’t completely gone away. I’ll admit I’m a little on the flatter chested side (not flat…but think navel oranges?). There the regular feel of boob, but then, it’s almost like a sort of thick suction cupped shapped mass, concave sid towards my ribcage, centered just behind the nipples. Different texture and it’s what is left of the original “rocks.” It’s still tender if you get a little crazy, or if you get whacked in it. I’m 25 and haven’t had a gynecologist mention any concern…or mention them at all. I think they’re the actual mammary ducts and whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/5 "2008-10-21T22:40:56Z")
[hijack] I read this thread’s title first as “Nipples Rock” and the back of my brain said, “Yes. Yes they do.” ---
**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:** [October 21, 2008, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/6 "2008-10-21T23:08:06Z")
> [@Belrix](#): > > [hijack] > I read this thread’s title first as “Nipples Rock” and the back of my brain said, “Yes. Yes they do.” I thought it was going to be about some kind of hardened encrusted secretion - kidney stones, nipple rocks. ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/7 "2008-10-21T23:09:56Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I thought it was going to be about some kind of hardened encrusted secretion - kidney stones, nipple rocks. Coming from a guy named Mangetout, I did \*not \*need to hear that. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/8 "2008-10-21T23:27:29Z")
Does this happen in boys, girls, or both? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/9 "2008-10-21T23:38:55Z")
The music _genre_ Nipple Rock was founded in 1977 when Shane MacGowan formed his first band The Nipple Erectors. I hope this helps. ---
**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:** [October 22, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/10 "2008-10-22T00:03:36Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Does this happen in boys, girls, or both? 😕 Well, I’m male and it happened to me. We need at least one other data point. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/11 "2008-10-22T03:29:45Z")
Both. Hormone fluctuations in puberty do odd things to your body. Even if you’re a boy the milk ducts get partially activated during some stages of development. You grow out of it pretty shortly. Girls have a similar early change, but it continues into adult breast development rather than subsiding the way it does with boys. ---
**Author:** ![Oswald\_Bastable](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oswald_bastable/32/214_2.png) [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/12 "2008-10-22T11:56:43Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Well, I’m male and it happened to me. We need at least one other data point. To me too and I appear to be male. I must have been about 14 and the lumps went within a year or so. OB ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/13 "2008-10-22T12:22:35Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Well, I’m male and it happened to me. We need at least one other data point. We have it. **Shark B8** mentioned seeing a gynecologist, so I’m assuming she’s a woman. ---
**Author:** ![johnboy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@johnboy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnboy40)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/14 "2008-10-22T12:23:34Z")
I first noticed them around age 12. As luck (or a macbre twist of fate) would have it, it was the day after my first pot smoking experience. Needless to say I was TOTALLY freaked out. Someone earlier had told me (no doubt, spurred on by post “Reefer Madness”- era disinformation) that doing so could cause men to grow breasts. I suffered in silent fear for a few days until one moment (in the middle of the night) I could no longer take it and woke my parents up and made my mom feel them. She seemed mildly concerned and said that we would see the doctor in the morning. The nurse reassured us that this was a totally normal part of puberty. In retrospect, seeing as how I am the sixth of seven children, my folks should have already known about the subject! ---
**Author:** ![johnboy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@johnboy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnboy40)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nipple-rocks/468910/15 "2008-10-22T12:26:02Z")
PS: I understand the ads for breast-related products at the end of the thread but why is there an ad for Pipe Fittings and Tools!