2
Feb 24, 2016
So...am I the only person who has had bras literally draw blood? As in multiple different brands, band sizes, cup sizes, after professional fittings at several different stores? Bras with underwire make me bleed. The spot under your arms where the underwire ends? That's where blood happens. I can be wearing a "comfortable" bra, one that looks great, seems to fit well for the first two to three hours...at the end of eight hours, I've got either raw or bloody spots. If something forces me to wear a bra for 12 hours, it's almost guaranteed that an underwire bra will be drawing blood.
I've had this issue with everything from Hanes and Fruit of the Loom bras from Walmart or Target, to bras from Victoria Secret, Soma, and Wacoal that were professionally fitted and seemed wonderful...in store and for the first couple hours.
I've got somewhat large breasts, somewhere around 36DDD-38DD has tended to be what professional fitters put me in and repeated trying on of various sizes and styles suggests, but I know there are plenty of women with much larger chests who don't seem to have a problem wearing underwire, so I'm not sure what is causing this.
There have been times when I've had a long shift at work and I've been in so much pain that I've had to excuse myself to the ladies room, remove my bra, and resort to crossed bandaid pasties (and additional bandaids over the bloody spots!) to make it through my shift.
I've tried sewing additional cushioning over the ends of underwires, but it really doesn't seem to help much. Nothing I do seems to make underwire work for me. I've given up on underwire, even though I'm not really happy with the support I get from wire-free bras. Any suggestions? Or even just people like me out there?
Edit to add my numbers: My comfortable rib cage measurement is 36 inches. My tight measurement is 33.5, loose is 37.5. The horizontal perimeter measure the site told me to take is 14 inches, and my overbust measurement when standing upright is 43 inches.
Filed under Bras ups and downs
10 comments
This is a common consequence of wearing a too-large band with a too-small cup. There are definitely a minority of people who have this issue even when wearing they ARE in the optimal size, particularly if they have a lot of breast tissue on their sides or extending into the armpit, but it is more frequent for it to be a size issue. The wire rubs the skin and pokes the wearer again and again throughout the day because the bra moves around too much, causing the ends of the wire to eventually break the skin. Of course I can't say for sure what the cause is for you but would you like to assess the fit of your current, best-fitting underwire bra here? There is a feature allowing you to upload your measurements, the bra's measurements, and photos. If you can at least rule out the most common cause (not wearing the size or shape of bra best suited to your anatomy) then other posters can possibly suggest other causes.
Are these professional fitters working at stores that end at a DD or DDD in the cup size? A lot of times people who are told that they're one of these cup sizes aren't really. A lot of fitters would rather put you into a bra size that is an okay fit rather than a good fit if the correct size would be something that the store doesn't sell. I'm not saying it isn't possible to actually have an ideal cup size of a DD or a DDD (because it definitely is) but if either the cup or band size is at the end of the range that a particular brand makes and the bra doesn't feel right, it's at least something to consider.
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