Are my breasts done developing?

[01Dancer]

I'm 15. I got my period at age 11. At age 11 my breast were a 34a. Now at age 15 I'm a 32a. They can't possibly be this small forever! Eveyone in my family (mom and dads side) have large chests. I just feel outta place compared to everyone else

[Sam W]

Hi 01Dancer,

That's a tricky question to answer, because bodies are weird and grow and change at their own pace. You might be done growing, you might not. It sounds like what might be helpful to you is to start figuring out ways to be okay with having a smaller chest size. Is that something you'd like to chat more about?

[01Dancer]

Yes.. I'd love to chat more about that. My chest makes me feel so insecure about my self

[Heather]

Do you have any sense of why? In other words, were your breasts a different size than they are, what do you feel that would give you that breasts the size you have does not, when it comes to your self-esteem?

It might help to consider that people with all sizes of breast struggle with self-esteem, so if this is a struggle for you, it may be you are attributing something to your breasts that isn't about them at all. It may be - and is likely, given that self-esteem and positive body image is rarely about how bodies look - that you would be feeling insecure even if your breasts were whatever size you feel is ideal.

[01Dancer]

They were a 34b at one point and completely shrunk. I look like a 12yr old boy. It's humiliating

[Heather]

So, what I hear you saying is that for you, your gender as a woman feels tied to having a certain breast size. Do I have that right?

If so, what do you think about people who have breasts on the smaller end of the range, and find that is not in conflict with their sense of their own gender at all (probably in part because they know that loads of women have A and B cup breasts, so clearly, people can be women and have breasts that size)?

I do want to add that if both your cup size and band size have decreased lately, it's possible that's because you have had some weight loss. When people with breasts lose any weight, it's most common for that loss to show up first, before almost anywhere else in the body, in the breasts. Have you been experiencing any weight loss lately?

Too, though, you have reported being put on birth control pills at a very young age and taking them right from the start of puberty, so a) the timing of that may have been what the deal was with that larger size, as when people are new to hormonal contraceptives, it's common for some breast bloating, and b) I'd just check these concerns with the doctor who is still prescribing the pill for you you've been on most likely since your puberty had barely begin. Oral contraceptives are not often prescribed for someone as young as 11 or 12 (our study of them as medication doesn't usually even include that age group, but instead starts only with those over 13), and one of the reasons for that are some concerns and unanswered questions about how these medications, or ways they can be used -- like by suppressing menstruation -- might impact the process of puberty and physical development and other long-term development.

It might also be of benefit to you to talk to your family members it sounds like you're comparing yourself to about these feelings. You can also ask them to tell you about their puberty patterns. While it may be this size breast will be around the size you have for your life (and if so, that's no less okay than having a different size), the timing and patterns of puberty also are often genetically linked, so it may be that in your family, breast growth or development happened later for people rather than earlier, and the same may be true for you. Too, if the family members breasts you are comparing yours to are all in people who have been pregnant and had children, you might also want to consider that their breast size may have increased with pregnancy -- rather than in puberty -- as it often does for people.