Uplifting bra news

Bras are actually more closely linked with wellbeing than you may imagine. Although the word “brassiere” did not first appear until around 1907, for the few decades prior to that fashion designers had been fiddling around under dresses in an attempt to liberate women from the uncomfortable constraints of the corset. A culmination of these efforts arrived in 1889 when a French corset-maker named Herminie Cadolle invented what is regarded as the first modern bra, a two-piece undergarment called “le bien-être” (the well-being). In the intervening century or so the bra has boomed and all sorts of varieties have found their way into women’s underwear drawers. There are bras that lift, some that separate, some that boost, some that conceal, and (this is true) some that when stretched or caressed will release a scent such as apple, grapefruit, or watermelon. In the 1990s however, a book raised concerns that bra wearing may be linked to breast cancer but new research has shown this is probably not the case.

The new study set out to address a concern raised in the mid-1990s by a book which claimed that wearing a bra increases the risk of breast cancer. This understandably alarmed many people although it has been widely argued against ever since. This new study though provides some straightforward evidence that bras do not have this dangerous potential.

The research involved detailed interviews with 454 women with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast and 590 women with invasive lobular carcinoma; the two most common breast cancer types. These women were compared to a control group of 469 women without breast cancer. The women in the study were aged between 55 and 74 and the aim was to see if there was in fact a link between bra wearing and breast cancer. To discover this they were asked questions like: “At what age did you start wearing a bra?”, “Do you wear a bra with underwire?”, “What is your bra cup size?”, “How many hours a day do you wear a bra?”, and “Have your bra-wearing patterns changed in your lifetime?”.

The results showed no link between any aspect of bra wearing and cancer incidence. In other words, the number of hours spent wearing a bra, whether the bra had underwire, and the age when bra-wearing began did not link in any significant way to cancer incidence.

It is nice to put that fear to rest although of course, it doesn’t mean that bra-wearing has no impact on the breast. For instance, a researcher from the University of Besancon, France, in 2013 announced findings that bra wearing might lead to greater breast sagging later in life. Specifically the study found that; bras do not negatively change the orientation of breasts, in fact breast orientation is improved, but women who never wear bras have nipples that are seven millimetres higher in relation to their shoulders for each year of non-bra wearing when compared to similar women who do wear bras. Other research has also shown that wearing bras that are the wrong size can cause some damage to breast tissue.

On the whole though, provided bras are worn appropriately, they won’t cause problems long-term and the evidence is that cancer is not a particular concern for bra-wearers.