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From: dyer@arktouros.MIT.EDU (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Re: male breastfeeding
Message-ID: <3193@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 24 Feb 88 19:48:20 GMT
References: <1686@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk> <1948@ttidca.TTI.COM> <42982@ti-csl.CSNET>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: dyer@arktouros.MIT.EDU (Steve Dyer)
Organization: MIT Project Athena, Cambridge MA 02139
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Pardon me if my credulity is strained a bit by claims that La Leche (sp?)
routinely asks whether a father would like to breastfeed, or that
by simple breast stimulation a male breast can develop and produce milk.
I'm not an anthropologist, but I see no evidence that this occurs in
any culture, or that it would ever be considered as other than something
extraordinary or a sign of endocrine dysfunction (i.e., it CAN'T and DOESN'T
occur routinely.)

I also am doubtful that suckling alone would have any measurable physiological
effect on the male breast viz. breast development and milk production.  This
is borne out by the observation that many men derive sexual pleasure through
breast and nipple stimulation and manipulation (this is more admitted to in
the gay male community, although it's certainly more widespread than that),
yet such practices have not produced an epidemic of gynecomastia or
galactorrhea.

---
Steve Dyer
dyer@arktouros.MIT.EDU
dyer@spdcc.COM aka {harvard,husc6,ima,ihnp4,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!dyer