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Q: Can Men Breastfeed?
A: Odd as it seems, men can lactate. In their 1896 book, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, Dr. George Gould and Dr. Walter Pyle recount several occurrences of men breastfeeding their young. The stories include a sailor who put his son to his breast to quiet him and started producing milk; a South American peasant who sustained his child with his own breast milk during his wife’s illness; and a Chippewa man who put his infant to his breast following the death of his wife and produced enough milk to rear the child.
The phenomenon hasn’t stopped. In 2002, a Sri Lankan man named B. Wijeratne lost his wife and was left to care for their 18-month-old daughter. When the child refused powdered milk, Wijeratne tried something different. “Unable to see her cry, I offered my breast,” Wijeratne told a Sri Lankan newspaper. “That’s when I discovered I could breastfeed.”
Wijeratne isn’t alone. All men can breastfeed, because they possess the two most vital components for lactating—mammary glands and pituitary glands. Mammary glands, which produce milk, are present in all mammals. In fact, they’re one of our defining characteristics. In some cases, such as with mice, the mammary glands of the males are too underdeveloped to function. In humans, however, they’re fully formed in both sexes, complete with breastfeeding ducts and nipples.
Of course, for a human to actually breastfeed, those mammary glands have to be activated somehow. In women, this usually happens during pregnancy, when the brain’s pituitary gland starts releasing large amounts of a hormone called prolactin, which prepares the breasts to produce milk.
All men produce small amounts of prolactin during their lifetimes. It’s released after orgasms, for example, and may be responsible for the associated feelings of satisfaction and relaxation. But typically, it’s never present in large enough quantities for men to breastfeed. Under the appropriate psychological circumstances, however, the mind can demand that the body produce more of the hormone. This often happens to mothers who adopt children and suddenly find they can nurse. And as Dr. Gould and Dr. Pyle have documented, there’s a long history of it happening in men, too.
This article was written by Shea Serrano and originally appeared in the September-October issue of mental_floss magazine.
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Comments (29)
Comment
That’s just… wow! I never knew that. Amazing.
posted by Nikki on 11-13-2008 at 7:14 pm
As stated in the article, women who have never had children can also nurse their adopted babies. My mother successfully nursed me up to the age of 14 months, after getting me at 3 months. She prepared to lactate months before the adoption was finalized and before I was even born, and was able to nurse me without supplementing with formula by the time I was 6 months old!
posted by Amanda on 11-13-2008 at 7:30 pm
God, this would help me immensely, my son wakes up 3-4 times a night to breastfeed! Maybe my husband will try to help me out some!
posted by Erin on 11-13-2008 at 7:56 pm
I wonder if there’s a hormone therapy regimen of prolactin available to allow men/women otherwise unable to breastfeed to do so…
posted by elliot on 11-13-2008 at 8:30 pm
I have been officially flabbergasted.
As a University Librarian, I thought I knew everything….
posted by embilbie on 11-14-2008 at 1:07 am
Interesting, now if we could just get them to birth the babies for us. We would be set.
posted by Tessa on 11-14-2008 at 1:43 am
This is awful. My future wife insists that if she births the babies, I have to breastfeed. I always told her it was impossible and never had a good explanation when she asked “Why not?!”
I hope she stays off the internet today…
posted by Aaron on 11-14-2008 at 8:07 am
I knew about this in 1994, in high school biology. I believe that Time magazine (or Newsweek, or another of the ilk) actually had an article about it. Many other species have the same ability. The thing that really stands out in my head was that there was an illustration of a ram, horns and all, wearing a nursing bra and nursing a kid. We read it for homework, then discussed it the next day in class. As you can imagine, many of my male classmates (freshman and sophomores) were totally grossed out by this.
reCaptcha is totally appropriate for my post!: absent tween
posted by Amy D on 11-14-2008 at 9:28 am
When my son was 3 months old, we took him to his doctor to get his checkup and as the doctor was looking him over, he said look at this and then massaged my son’s breast and lo and behold he could lactate as a baby.
posted by Ryan on 11-14-2008 at 9:57 am
Should I degrade this with the Meet the Parents reference? Too late, just did it.
This is fascinating.
posted by Lilly on 11-14-2008 at 10:17 am
I got this off of Wikipedia, very interesting:
Extreme stress combined with demanding physical activity and a shortage of food has also been known to cause male lactation. The phenomenon occurred in survivors of the liberated Nazi concentration camps after World War II. Some American POWs returning from the Korean and Vietnam Wars also experienced male lactation. Anthropologist Barry Hewlett has observed male breastfeeding among certain Pygmies of central Africa for whom “male and female roles are virtually interchangeable”.The phenomenon has also been observed in isolated cases in other parts of the world.
posted by Sweet Pea on 11-14-2008 at 10:31 am
Ryan,
I’m sorry, but that’s creepy. Please tell me you switched doctors.
posted by bzzyb on 11-14-2008 at 10:46 am
If we men produce prolactin during their lifetimes and if it’s released after orgasms, then will our breasts become bigger and bigger if we have orgasm everyday????
posted by JT on 11-14-2008 at 12:27 pm
Super ineresting…and I agree with bzzyb…Ryan, why on Earth did your doctor do that?
posted by Brittany on 11-14-2008 at 12:29 pm
Yeah, Ryan, that is creepy on behalf of the doctor, but the baby lactation is explained by the baby still being full of the mother’s hormones. This was also on an episode of King of the Hill – Cotton’s new baby son had this “witch’s milk”.
posted by Mare on 11-14-2008 at 12:36 pm
There is a man in Louise Erdrich’s novel “The Antelope Wife” who breastfed a baby. I thought it was some kind of magical realism thing, but I guess it was more than that!
posted by Shasta on 11-14-2008 at 4:02 pm
I saw a news story on the man who gave birth to a baby. His wife was able to lactate and now breastfeeds the baby. Pretty darn cool if you ask me. I think I’ll go with Aaron’s wife and make my husband breastfeed. :O)
posted by Tricia on 11-14-2008 at 4:07 pm
JT – Lolno. I’ve orgasmed (almost) every day since the age of around 13 and my breast isn’t any bigger then normal.
posted by Alex on 11-17-2008 at 12:42 pm
I have another random question. In the Wizard of Oz, the good witch tells Dorothy to start her journey at the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road. When Dorothy steps to the beginning of the spiraling Yellow Brick Road, there is a Red Brick Road that spirals out in the opposit direction. If the Yellow Brick Road leads to Ox, where does the Red Brick Road lead to?
posted by Bethany on 11-17-2008 at 12:55 pm
Ok… That’s random… Maybe the road leads to a city the exact opposite of Oz, like being filled with poverty and whatnot…
posted by Matthew on 11-17-2008 at 1:02 pm
as to the doctor being creepy, I remember my mother having my baby brother and showing us this. She was a nurse and her explanation was that when we had children, we’d know what to expect and not freak out.
posted by Bekah on 11-17-2008 at 2:37 pm
omg Bethany thats so creepy…I asked myself the exact same question last night!
I didnt know men could breastfeed O.o Id heard of women doing it without being preg but wow….men? Maybe should go with the others and make my guy breastfeed if we ever have our own kid *lol*
posted by Jennifer on 11-17-2008 at 3:17 pm
Sorry folks, but men CAN NOT have babies. The MAN you are referring to is NOT a man. Its a biological female. You know…uterus and all. She just chopped her breasts off! So……..she is still a she! Till she lops that uterus out, and packs on a penis, she is still a SHE! LOL….
posted by Angel on 11-17-2008 at 8:12 pm
I would NEVER want my husband to nurse because I’d miss out. I didn’t care for it the first six weeks, but it got much better in the seventh week. And now I absolutely love the time I spend nursing my little tater tot. . .which is a good thing as he won’t take a bottle. I guess that’s a downside to nursing exclusively. But he started to drink from a cup at 5 1/2 months.
posted by MrsHashBrown on 11-25-2008 at 6:13 pm
I think the whole idea of a man being able to breastfeed a baby is the coolest thing I have ever heard! It’s like Mother Nature was smart enough to create a backup plan in case something happened to the mother. How clever! Now we know why men have nipples and that they actually WORK.
Does anyone know if there is video proof of a man lactating and feeding a baby? I’d love to see it.
posted by Eloise on 12-11-2008 at 6:59 pm
Men having breasts and mammary glands isn’t actually a natural “backup plan” per se, because the female gender is the template for all human beings. All humans are female to start with and the Y chromosome is what turns boys into boys. They also still have an X chromosome. Interestingly, women only have the X and no Y. Men have nipples because they started out life in the womb as a female template.
It is a great thing that men can lactate, though.
Also, the comment above about breasts getting “bigger and bigger” was quite misguided and is representative of just how ignorant men are about breasts. How exactly should an orgasm make a breast bigger, anyway? The only way a breast size can increase is by making the fat cells bigger or through lactation which will fill the milk ducts with milk (and this can only be temporary because the milk has to come out or it will stop producing.) Breast implants do not actually make a breast bigger. The breast will be the same size with a bag of saline next to it.
posted by Momo on 12-13-2008 at 8:31 pm
is this really true? xD
posted by aidan on 12-18-2008 at 3:05 am
Maybe the red brick road goes to Kumbricia’s cave? (from “Wicked”)
And this idea of lactating in times of need reminds me of “Grapes of Wrath”!
posted by Benita on 2-13-2009 at 8:07 pm
Can you say… Its time for your breast reduction Sir!
posted by jack on 3-5-2009 at 10:12 pm