Xref: utzoo sci.bio:928 sci.med:4265
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!linus!philabs!aecom!werner
From: werner@aecom.YU.EDU (Craig Werner)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Re: male breastfeeding
Message-ID: <1636@aecom.YU.EDU>
Date: 23 Feb 88 03:47:20 GMT
References: <1686@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk> <9626@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 27

In article <9626@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, flowers@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) writes:
> 
> I've heard of various cases of male lactation:
> 
> - The Merck Manual describes Galactorrhea, "Lactation in MEN [emphasis
> added], or in women who are not breast-feeding an infant" (p 1028ff,

	I don't even know why I continue to debate the point. I suppose
that as sci.med's resident dartboard,I feel dutybound.

	Galactorrhea, and it's correlary, Gynecomastia, when they occur
in men is usually significant of a disease state (either natural or
induced).  Men have rudimentary breasts for the same reason that women
have clitoral rather than vaginal orgasms (much to Freudians' dismay):
we all follow the same pattern initially in embryonic development, and
the penis (excepting the urethra) is merely a hypertrophied clitoris.
This is not to say, of course,that men and women end up the same.

Note well, however, that the stimulation of a male to lactation involves 
a significant amount of feminization, some of which is irreversible, 
and I really think that it is irresponsible to advocate male breast feeding.

-- 
	        Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 3.5 years down, 3.5 to go)
	     werner@aecom.YU.EDU -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)
"Comedy, like Medicine, was never meant to be practiced by the general public."