Women in the UK are among the world’s most unhappy with their breasts, according to a study by Anglia Ruskin University. The study spoke to 18,000 women across the world and found that women in the UK, alongside Japan, China and the USA, were some of the least happy with their chests.
Only 25% of us actually like our boobs. The countries where women are happiest with their breasts are Columbia, Paraguay, Ghana and Spain.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the major complaint about women’s breasts was size. Almost half of women polled felt that they would prefer to have bigger breasts, but 23% said that they would like their boobs to be smaller.
The fact that women don’t feel comfortable with their bodies isn’t exactly new news - a 2016 study by Dove found that 80% of UK women dislike the way that they look. This new study did uncover the fact that women who dislike their breasts are significantly less likely to check them for lumps.
Self-checking your breasts is one of the most effective ways to achieve early detection of breast cancer. Women who do not check their breasts - for whatever reason - are less likely to notice any changes and therefore less likely to seek treatment. As with many cancers, the early detection of breast cancer is one of the major contributing factors to treatment success.
Professor Viren Swami, who led the study, said: ‘Breast cancer is the leading cause of female cancer-related deaths worldwide and poor survival rates are associated with poorer breast awareness. Breast size dissatisfaction may result in avoidance behaviours that reduce breast awareness, particularly if a woman's breasts trigger feelings of anxiety, shame, or embarrassment.'
If you need help keeping on top of breast checking, you can sign up to a monthly text alert from charity CoppaFeel, or if you are unable to do so yourself, you can visit your GP and talk to them about it.
You can find out more about how to check your breasts here.