very STUPID question....

612 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by fyrflymommy, Jun 8, 2004

loving-my-babies

Discussion Starter · Jun 7, 2004

ok I know this is a stupid question... I know.... but I have to ask...
why do men have nipples if they don't need them?
could they ever lactate? (if given hormones, drugs, herbs)

I guess I'm having a weird day... my dd asks "why" about 1000 times per day and I'm starting to wonder why too...

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Kleine Hexe

· #2 · Jun 7, 2004

You know I just read about this in Discover mag. The article was called "Useless Body Parts". We have a lot of them. Nipples on men are one. Men actually do have milk ducts. They are just not developed. Yes, a man technically*can* lactate. I keep telling dh this and that he needs to start so that I can take a break every now and then! :LOL

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Peony

· #3 · Jun 7, 2004

I keep telling DH the same thing! He thinks I'm

but when I'm desperate for a break, I don't care whose's breast milk dd gets!

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sntm

· #4 · Jun 7, 2004

Men can and have lactated. You can develop a pituitary tumor called a prolactinoma that induces milk production in either women or men. Also, men can develop breast cancer (almost 1% of breast cancer cases are in men), which is a cancer of the milk ducts or lobules.

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Persephone

· #5 · Jun 7, 2004

In the womb, men develop both male and female characteristics before their male chromosome (or hormones or something) kicks in, and then they stop developing the female characteristics. So they beging to develop breasts/nipples, but then they stop and begin to develop male charateristics. So their nipple stay small. (Kinda cool that they can lactate!

)

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be11ydancer

· #6 · Jun 7, 2004

I've told DH too that he needs to start lactating so he can enjoy the same bond with Jasmine that I have and so she'll like him better. :LOL You should see the look on his face when I first told him men have the proper equipment

uke .

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Sustainer

· #7 · Jun 8, 2004

Not a stupid question at all.

Male humans and female humans are more alike than they are different. Male lactation is physically possible. Some men have breastfed.

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loving-my-babies

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jun 8, 2004

but when you say men can lactate, can they really produce enough milk like we do? or will they get only a couple drops?

I told my dh last night.. I might have said it with a serious tone in my voice, because he thought I was being serious, he looked at me and touched my forehead to see If I had fever and was going mad or something...

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Sustainer

· #9 · Jun 8, 2004

I'm not sure of the specifics of the cases of men breastfeeding babies. I don't know if they had to supplement or not. I'm sure at least some of them did. There are websites about it but I don't know the addresses. You could do a search of earlier threads -- it's been discussed here before, and websites mentioned.

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fyrflymommy

· #10 · Jun 8, 2004

here is a link for ya!!
Milkmen: Fathers Who Breastfeed http://www.freebirth.com/milkmen.htm

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