Some women experience breast pain (mastodynia, mastalgia), particularly when performing strenuous physical activity or exercise. A properly fitted bra reduces such pain and the sports bra has been specifically designed for this purpose. Sports bras were found to be more effective than ordinary bras for reducing breast pain caused by exercise. However, the need for wearing a bra at all during exercise has been questioned following extensive studies on athletes and sportswomen.
Numerous websites and publications dealing with fibrocystic disease and breast pain state that a well-fitting bra is recommended for treatment of these conditions. For fibrocystic disease there are no studies to support these statements. For breast pain a 2006 clinical practice guideline, makes this statement as level II-3 evidence and a grade B recommendation. However this rests solely on two short communications of uncontrolled studies. In the 1976 UK study, 114 women complaining of pain were professionally fitted with a special bra. 26% of women who completed the study and wore the bra properly had relief of pain, 49% improved, 21% did not, and 4% were worse. There were a lot of dropouts from the study. In the 2000 Saudi Arabia study, 200 women were randomly allocated to either a drug (danazole) or a Sports bra. 58% of the danazole group improved compared to 85% in the sports bra group. No details of what the women wore prior to the study was given. Neither study had an untreated control, and there was no blinding. Breast pain has a very high placebo response (85%) so that a response to any intervention might be expected. It is not clear whether the interventions described are generalisable. A similar number of websites claim improvement after stopping wearing bras. These are based on anecdotes, since there are no formal studies.
In the specific case of larger breasts, the bra lifts the breasts away from the chest and can prevent two skin surfaces from rubbing together. Without the bra, maceration (loss of skin), intertrigo (rash) and fungal infections are possible.
Numerous websites and publications dealing with fibrocystic disease and breast pain state that a well-fitting bra is recommended for treatment of these conditions. For fibrocystic disease there are no studies to support these statements. For breast pain a 2006 clinical practice guideline, makes this statement as level II-3 evidence and a grade B recommendation. However this rests solely on two short communications of uncontrolled studies. In the 1976 UK study, 114 women complaining of pain were professionally fitted with a special bra. 26% of women who completed the study and wore the bra properly had relief of pain, 49% improved, 21% did not, and 4% were worse. There were a lot of dropouts from the study. In the 2000 Saudi Arabia study, 200 women were randomly allocated to either a drug (danazole) or a Sports bra. 58% of the danazole group improved compared to 85% in the sports bra group. No details of what the women wore prior to the study was given. Neither study had an untreated control, and there was no blinding. Breast pain has a very high placebo response (85%) so that a response to any intervention might be expected. It is not clear whether the interventions described are generalisable. A similar number of websites claim improvement after stopping wearing bras. These are based on anecdotes, since there are no formal studies.
In the specific case of larger breasts, the bra lifts the breasts away from the chest and can prevent two skin surfaces from rubbing together. Without the bra, maceration (loss of skin), intertrigo (rash) and fungal infections are possible.
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