Why are nipples concave?

The nipple is sunken, which doctors call inverted nipple. There are many causes, the most important of which is congenital. For women, if inverted nipple occurs, the biggest impact is that the baby cannot feed normally during breastfeeding, and of course it will also affect the beauty of the breast. Therefore, when the nipple is sunken, it is necessary to adopt certain methods to correct it in time. If the correction effect is not good, surgery can be performed.

Why are nipples concave?

In medicine, the phenomenon of "inverted nipple" is called nipple inversion. There are congenital and acquired causes of nipple inversion.

Congenital inverted nipple: Developmental disorder of the mesoderm under the nipple leads to shortening of the fibrous tissue and mammary ducts, and lack of tissue support under the nipple, which prevents the nipple from protruding normally.

Acquired inverted nipple: Contraction of the tissue beneath the nipple and areola due to trauma, inflammation, tumors, and surgery, such as recurrent mastitis and post-mastoma reduction surgery. In addition, ill-fitting bras during adolescence can cause long-term tight pressure on the nipples and cause inverted nipples.

Inverted nipples are not uncommon. According to statistics, the incidence of inverted nipples among Asians is between 2% and 10%.

My nipples are sunken, what should I do?

There are two types of inverted nipples: umbilical type inverted nipples and folded type inverted nipples. The umbilical type inverted nipples can return to their natural protruding state through manual pulling or stimulation such as hot or cold; the folded type inverted nipples cannot return to their natural state no matter what the stimulation is, and can generally only be corrected through surgery.

These methods can improve inverted nipples:

1. Manual traction: mainly through the method of pulling and massaging to make the nipples protrude. If you find that your nipples are inverted during puberty, this method may be able to correct the inverted nipples, but it requires long-term persistence.

2. Negative pressure suction: It mainly uses a negative pressure breast pump to help pull out the nipple, but it can only last for a short period of time and will retract quickly.

3. Surgery: The latest minimally invasive nipple correction surgery is better for nipples and milk ducts. The disadvantage is that the nipple may not be able to fully achieve a normal appearance after the operation, and may even retract. Therefore, this method is suitable for mothers who are worried that inverted nipples will affect breastfeeding. It is best to perform the surgery six months before pregnancy.