A while ago, I wrote a blog about my husband and his perspective on breastfeeding. I’ve been breastfeeding for eight years pretty much without a break and so you have to figure that he does indeed have a perspective worth sharing. I wrote 8 tips to help dads while their wives are breastfeeding and shared some of my husband’s thoughts on the whole process. As my husband puts it: breastfeeding is for manly men.
Well, I recently found out that men can breastfeed! No, not help their wives by supporting them in whatever way possible. . .men have mammary glands and can actually produce milk. Men can and do actually offer their babies human milk. Pursuing a discussion among some friends, I’ve decided to wax eloquent and offer some thoughts on male breastfeeding to satisfy inquiring minds.
How Is This Possible?
Let’s start with the basics. One reasons mammals are mammals is because they have mammary glands. That is in fact one reason why we’re called mammals! The only difference genetically between a male and a female is that 23rd chromosome. And while that chromosome produces some pretty drastic differences. . .we’re really, scientifically speaking, not that different.
With that said, mothers who have not been pregnant before can lactate by nipple stimulation and well, so can males. It really is not a new discovery, just something new to ponder. Male cancer patients who have been under going hormone therapy have been observed to spontaneously produce milk as have women who were not pregnant.
The Risk to a Male
Men can lactate with nipple stimulation the same as a woman may breastfeed her adopted child. However, in the brief research I’ve done, it seems to be extremely rare that men who have actually done this, have been able to fully breastfeed a full term infant. . .although it has happened in at least a few documented cases.
So if there actually was a man who wanted to fully breastfeed his infant without any kind of supplementation he would likely have to undergo hormone therapy of estrogen and prolactin. While women are prepared for breastfeeding by naturally occurring hormones and pregnancy–men have no such benefit.
In women, the hormones for lactation are naturally occurring. Prolactin may not be in a mother who has never been pregnant. . .but estrogen certainly is. However, in males, estrogen is not naturally occurring in the quantities necessary to produce enough milk to feed a full term infant. In fact, estrogen present in that amount of quantities for a sustained period of time is associated with male breast cancer. It’s interesting to me that extended breastfeeding (for more than 3 or 4 years) in women actually decreases breast cancer risk but more than triples the risk for men.
Wanting my opinion on the matter? You’ll have to come back tomorrow!