Xref: utzoo sci.bio:939 sci.med:4306
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!eos!aurora!labrea!navajo!baxter
From: baxter@navajo (Ray Baxter)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Re: male breastfeeding
Message-ID: <2055@navajo.UUCP>
Date: 25 Feb 88 06:54:58 GMT
References: <1686@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk> <9626@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <1636@aecom.YU.EDU> <2054@navajo.UUCP> <3203@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Sender: baxter@navajo.UUCP
Reply-To: baxter@navajo (Ray Baxter)
Followup-To: sci.bio
Distribution: na
Organization: Biological Sciences, Stanford University
Lines: 35
In-reply-to: dyer@arktouros.MIT.EDU (Steve Dyer)



I wrote:

>>The question was, is it possible for men to breast feed?  The answer seems
>>to be yes.  Why continue the debate?

to which <3203@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>, dyer@arktouros (Steve Dyer) writes:

>Huh?  On the contrary, I have seen nothing which would convince anyone
>that "the answer seems to be yes."  A report from 1799 is rather meagre
>and suspect evidence.  Outside of a hormonal imbalance, either endogenous or
>due to exogenous administration of estrogens or estrogen-like substances,
>I'm not convinced that breast feeding in men is physiologically possible.

Well, I did not really consider the 1799 evidence myself in my reply.
But the reports of diseases in which men do lactate seemed more concrete.
Clearly male breast feeding is possible.

I do not see why you want to exclude evidence relating to hormonal 
imbalance.  If there was not something out of kilter somewhere in the
man's physiology, he would not be lactating.  

I know there have been some discussions in this thread about the 
La Leche League and male breast feeding (denied by a later writer) 
which would imply that some people think that male breast feeding is 
a good idea, or even normal.  I had assumed that such discussions were
peripheral to the topic of:

     Is it possible for a man to breast feed?
			^^^^^^^^
That is, are there any circumstances which will allow a man to breast feed.
--
   Ray Baxter                             Department of Biological Sciences
   baxter@navajo.stanford.edu                           Stanford University
   (415) 723-3902                                Stanford, California 94305
--