Bras Actually Make Breasts Saggier, According To The French

ShutterstockA 15-year study out of France this week claims that bras could actually make women's breasts saggier, according to French newspaper The Local.

Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, a researcher at Besançon CHU, has been measuring the breasts of 330 women ages 18-35 since 1997 with a slide ruler and caliper to see the effects of bra-wearing.

Of the women involved in the creepy-sounding study, the researcher found that those who wore bras risked not developing supporting breast tissues, which then led to sagging breasts.

According to Rouillon, women who didn't wear a bra had very different results: "Their nipples lifted on average seven millimeters in one year in relation to the shoulders," he told The Local.

"Medically, physiologically, anatomically – breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity. On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra,” Professor Rouillon told France Info radio on Wednesday.

The internet, of course, collectively scoffed at the so-called "preliminary study." But Refinery29 spoke with a plastic surgeon Dr. Stafford Broumand, who says the claim actually seems plausible.

"For younger women, not wearing a bra will lead to increased collagen production and elasticity, which improves lift in a developing breast," Broumand told Refinery29. "Also, tension on the connective tissue and ligaments supporting the breast can be beneficial to prevent sagging."

Both Broumand and Rouillon agreed that those who have been wearing bras for a long time or who are older would gain no benefits from decreased bra usage.