The agony of big boobs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

While visiting my best friend on Saturday, I was forced to buy some new clothes. She didn’t like the fact that my pants were 2 sizes too big and my shirt was 4 sizes too big. She didn’t like my excuse that I gain and lose weight so quickly that there’s no point in buying new clothes. So, I now have 2 very nice pair of pants and 5 nice shirts. They all fit me very well.

But, she came into the dressing room with me and happened to see my bra (not surprising as I was trying on shirts). She was horrified. Now, I buy very good bras. I get them fitted. But, after 2 years, they look like crap. I’m too cheap to replace them more often than that. I’m down to one bra because all my underwires broke. This one surviving bra had a large hole in the back. The hole was a new occurance and I just hadn’t had time to replace it.

So, she ordered me to buy a new bra (or 5) and tried to steer me to Victorias. I kindly pointed out to her that while she may be able to shop there, I can’t. She didn’t understand until I pointed out that Victoria’s doesn’t like women like me. I only buy my bras at Fredericks. The last time I tried to buy a bra at Victorias, the very rude girl took one look at my chest, burst out laughing and told me I’d only find a bra that fit if I went to Layne Bryant or Avenue (IOW, fat lady stores). So, off to Fredericks we went. I bought the exact same bra that I was wearing at the time, and my best friend was astonished to find out that:

  1. Yes the bra did fit
    and
  2. Yes it did actually at one point, lift and separate

The bra fitter sized me and told me that (goddammit) my boobs had grown again. I am now an F cup. My best friend’s eyes just about bugged out of her head. Even the clerk looked surprised when she saw the results.

I don’t know why everyone is so surprised to find out that I have big boobs. It’s not like I can hide them.

Anyway, even in a store like Fredericks, once you hit DD, you’re pretty limited on what you can get. However, I will say that all their bras are comfortable and attractive.

So, I got one of the same style I already had. The other one, I still can’t believe I bought this, is a cleavage enhancer. I do NOT need enhancement. But, it fit really well.

Anyway, as to the agony. I’m always shocked to be reminded of this fact. But, when you have been wearing a worn out bra for a while, and you have big boobs, suddenly changing to a bra that does it’s job, it HURTS!

Of my, I have spent the last 3 days avoiding wearing a bra. Having them held up where they belong, instead of dangling halfway down my stomach, actually hurts. Now, granted I look thinner and my hourglass figure actually shows when my boobs are lifted. And the bra is very comfortable to wear. But, when I take it off, I have to take one boob out at a time, and gently lower my boob. I can’t just rip it off and let them drop. Unfortunately, my vacation is up and I have to go to work in 7 hours. I’ll have to wear a bra for 5 days straight. Ouch. :frowning:

Of course, seeing me holding my own boobs is so exciting for my boyfriend and he, of course, makes his guy comments. Why don’t men realize that sometimes, we’re not touching ourselves for their pleasure? Sometimes, guys, we actually touch ourselves to relieve pain.

One last gripe about my boobs (and some women will get mad at me here). Why the hell do my boobs keep growing? Most boobs get smaller when weight is lost. In November of 2005, I weight 200lbs and wore a DD. I now weigh 180 and I wear an F. I have lost up to 60lbs in the past and my boobs didn’t get even slightly smaller. I want a C cup dammit! If I ever get to my goal of 125lbs and I’m still larger than a C cup, I’m going to get them chopped off.

2

Uhm… I don’t feel your pain (thankfully) but I have enough friends in your situation to know what you speak of.

One of my college dorm-mates wanted to finish college so she’d be able to get ‘em cut down to a reasonable size. When she’d asked her parents for it, Da had said “aw c’mon you’s got fine boobs, just like your Mama!” and Ma had said "bah, ‘it hurts it hurts’, giving birth hurts worse an’ I done it five times, them tits will help you catch your guy!" Her back was killing her… I’d give her backrubs and that helped, but damn!

Either mine keep growing too (but still something reasonable) or lingerie brands are starting to have fun with sizing just like the regular clothesmakers. If they both go on with the continental drift, we’ll all end up having HHHs on our 000 bodies.

3

Amazingly enough, I’ve never had back pain from my boobs. My only back problem was a non-boob related herniated disk. Nope, my only pain is my shoulders and the boobs themselves. They always hurt but they hurt more when I’ve got my period or when I take off a new bra.

After my boobs haven’t gotten adjusted to being lifted, the pain will subside. I feel for any woman with back pain from their boobs. If that were the case for me, I’d probably have already gotten them chopped.

4

I’ve never had sore boobs but I definitely feel your pain when it comes to buying underwear. In the UK many stores are finally beginning to understand that not everyone is a B-cup but they still don’t tend to go beyond DD or E. What peeves me most is that stores for larger sizes such as Evans also stop at those cups.

I tend to shop via the Bravissimo website. Beautiful lingerie and not too expensive. And my one peeve *there * is that they have big cup and bra sizes but the matching knickers seem to only go up to about average size. Can’t win I guess. :rolleyes:

5

A friend of mine in highschool had Hellacious Boobs (as she called them.) The poor girl had a hell of a time finding bras and this being a very religious, conservative area, there’s no way on God’s green Earth that her mother would have permitted her to shop in Fredrick’s. (And the closest one is about a two-hour’s drive, anyway.) She ended up having to order bras through JCPenny and the like, and they were always these horribly ugly, industrial-looking things.

The worst part of it was that she was very short, and those massive boobs made her look fat, even though she wasn’t. (She and I wore one another’s jeans on occasion.) Two hundred years ago, she probably would have been thought of as the hottest thing on two legs, but in the modern age, she was mocked by our peers as being fat and dumpy.

6

I feel ya sister.

The part that pisses me off the most is that if you’re a DD or an E, everyone assumes you want your boobs “minimized”. Uh, no. I want pretty bras. I want lacy bras. I want bras that make boys go Ooo La La!. I don’t not want bras that look like they’re designed to hold up a bridge or the tippy top part of a renaissance church. If it’s got a flying buttress, I don’t want it.

Also, I have a very small rib cage. If one more snippy sales girl looks at me like I’m a freak when I ask if they might, possibly, have my size, I’m going to snap and strangle her with a wonder bra.

On a brighter note, I have found a local store that carries my size, and even has a selection of pretty ones. Sadly, they’re all $150. Ouch. I mean, $150 for a special occasion is ok, but for an everyday bra is a bit steep.

7

blinks a few times
Um…don’t mind me. Please…continue…

8

Is that the Cat’s Pyjamas in Kensington? I tried on the most comfortable bra in my life there, and it was…about $150!

You know, I’m not a massively huge-chested woman, and I’m a DD (36 or 38 ribcage). As we get older, a lot of us get “bigger” (it’s not actually bigger, it’s just longer, but anyway). We need good support, we need good quality bras, we need them to be affordable, and we need them to be PRETTY! Dammit. And we need them in smaller ribcage sizes with large cup sizes. I’m tired of all the DDs being 40 and up.

And yes, my back does hurt from my chestal weight. It’s mostly just a constant ache between the shoulders that I hardly even notice any more.

9

I don’t know why but this thread intrigues me.

10

I went in not long ago to buy one or two more of a style that worked for me. But I wanted to try a 34 band instead of a 36, since I’d been using the tightest hooks. “Remember,” said the bright and perky sales lady, “when you go down a band size you usually go UP a cup size!” I hate bra shopping.

11

Indeed it is! I was in last Saturday and got measured and fitted by one of the Eastern European women who works there, and you KNOW she knows boobs. I found two that are really pretty and fit very well. Of course they were $150. And of course I had to buy the matching thongs, ‘cus that’s just what I do. $65 apiece. I’ve seen frikin’ Barbie Dolls wearing more fabric and they’re $65 a piece.

Featherlou, I’m a 32 E. It’s…absurd. Ya know, I used to be a A. I was always happy as an A. I was never a flat chested girl that got grumpy about being an A. <sigh> God Damn Friggn’ E. I should have seen it coming - my grandmother was a G, but she had 7 kids. I thought I was safe. I was wrong. FWIW - all you A gals out there - thank your lucky stars.

Oddly enough, I’ve never had pain associated with the girls. I have a pretty muscular back so perhaps the muscles can accomodate the weight? I have no idea.

12

Funny, I’ve never found them anything but pleasant.

13

Me as well. Specifically, I have to wonder in the modern age of Velcro, Gore-Tex, and carbon nanotubes (I don’t know how you’d actually integrate them into a brassiere but if you could it would be a marketing coup), why bras can’t be made more adjustable and/or modular so that aside from variations in cup size you just select the style you like (within reason) and adjust for comfort.

This is strictly an academic question. I am not a transvestite. I don’t even particularly care for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Stranger

14

I can’t promise, but I’ll consider it.

–A grumpy A-cup

15

Thanks to the last bra thread, I figured out that I’m a 32D (NOT a 34 C, which is what I was wearing). I searched quite a few stores and had a very hard time even finding that size, I can’t imagine trying to find an E. The smallest D band-size I could easily find was a 38, with a few 36 and 34 bands hidden behind all the other bras. The only brand I could find that had that size was Wacoal - but at least they had pretty ones.

And we’ve learned yet another fashion industry lesson:
If you have a large ribcage measurement, you will have big boobs. A small ribcage measurement means only small boobs. :dubious:

16

You know the velcro straps that they use on wrist and ankle weights? The ones that go through the buckle thingy and then you can tighten them as much as you need?

If they made a bra that used those things on the band and the straps, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

I don’t usually have too much trouble with the band, but I can *never * find straps short enough to stay comfortably on my shoulders.

17

Me too. I’m so tired of pullong up my stupid bra straps I just want to velcro the straps directly to my shoulders.

18

In many cases, this wouldn’t work out too well because underwire brassieres are a feat of mechanical engineering; one misadjustment with DIY style adjusters and you may destroy all the lift[, erm, thrust?] and support that the original design intended. Besides, I’ve never known velcro that could hold together the way that those infernal hooks do.

I worked at Victoria’s Secret for a short period of time, and they had developed something they called Secret Embrace technology. Essentially, they’re specially engineered foam rubber cups with rubbery fabric that is seamlessly bound. If I wanted high tech bra that didn’t fall apart within three or four washings, I’d buy something else. For now, though, I’ll stick to my tried and true old fashioned bras in the largest size they carry in store. (38D)

19

You might try Marks and Spencers - they have a nice range of bras up to G cup. The only problem for me is that the straps tend to be too widely spaced, and so slip down my shoulders.

20

Nordstrom has a huge selection of very large sized bras. They may be expensive, but they’re probably better quality than Frederick’s.

By the way, Victoria’s Secret bras are cheap pieces of crap. The quality of the materials and construction is horrible. I’ll stop in there every so often just to see if there is anything good, but I am always amazed at the poor quality and the high prices.