I guess it’s a birth defect, but I don’t know. Seems like I’ve heard that some of them (on women) can actually produce milk, but most are just there for looks. If a mother drinks alcohol or smokes, would the baby be more likely to have one of these?
I’m just wondering, I have one, and it’s not one of those things that’s talked about that much, and I haven’t found a whole lot about the mysterious things. I know that my mom smoked while she was pregnant (Carltons she said) so could that be the cause? Think I can sue the tobacco companies and get some money?
Anyone know what they’re around for and why they’re more common than a third testicle or third arm or something (If they are in fact more common, I don’t really know). And along those same lines, why don’t you hear about kids born with extra internal organs, only external? I guess it does happen, it’s just not as easy to see so to speak.
I’ve got 4 nipples, but no one else in my family has more than 2. There’s a thread in ‘In My Humble Opinion’ that I started, titled ‘How Many Nipples Do YOU Have?’, and many here responded that they have 3 or 4 nipples.
I don’t think it’s inheritted, but I suppose it could be in some cases.
Yes, it can be genetically passed on. I knew two brothers and thier father that had them. Very small, but still visible.
The actual term is supernumerary, nipple as opposed to vestigial.
Now you have something to Google.
I think Houdini had one, and Chandler on “Friends” claimed to have one too.
You ever see nipples on male dogs? I think it’s related to that. FWIW, I have vestigial nipples - on the right side of my chest, there’s a mole about the height of my sternum, set in a little closer to the middle than my real nipple. Then there’s a mole on the left side, just left of my navel. When I was a teenager and some hair started appearing on my chest, first around my nipples, hair also grew a little thicker around these vestigial nipples, on both the left and right sides. Once the hair had come in all the way, there was no apparent difference, so it’s much harder to tell now. They just look like two ordinary moles.
They can be inherited. My grandfather had one, and so do I. According to family lore it skips a generation every time, but only on the male side of the family.
It’s possible they don’t know they have them. I can see where the third and fourth nipple are if I look really closely. I doubt if anyone else would ever notice.
This could also explain the difference between the 1/100 and 2.5/100 figures quoted for incidence - maybe it depends how hard you look.
I have three, and my dad says that my mom has three, also. My third nipple is inverted, so it looks like it might be a scar. When I was in Jr. Hi, I got a lot of mileage by telling everybody I got it in a knife fight…
Heeeey. Guess what! I have this mole under my armpit that I always thought looked a little funny and was a little too squishy and big. Well, I just further inspected it, and I’m pretty sure it’s a mini-nipple. It looks like a small nipple, but it doesn’t have the darker skin color surrounding it, just the tip.
Sorry, but that ain’t a nipple…supernumeraries are always found on a line between your ‘normal’ nipple and your pubic symphesis…it’s called the “milk line”.
One of them is a little less developed on one side of his body. That side grows less hair, etc. It’s also the side of the third nipple. So maybe that is related.
