Bra fitting – a brazilian mastectomized women experience

Abstract

Alphanumeric system – used internationally to manufacture bras – is an exception in Brazil. In this century, two brands made some efforts to make it used, but they are not the most sold labels and the full range of sizes is not always available. Most Brazilian women buy a bra using only one measure, which uses to be similar to the top clothing. The matter of bra fitting is always discussed in American and European blogs, and researchers from all over the world propose solutions for better bras – each one considering their population – but there are a few proposals that take into account mastectomized women who were not submitted to a reconstruction of the breast. These ones have even more questions to cope with, and if the industry that works with band and cup sizes, separately, has difficulties to address the regular fitting (with two breasts they suppose that are symmetrical), in Brazilian approach, with just a number or a range like small, medium, large and extra large, the support to women’s need is even poorer. This paper shows the analysis of the first part of a research made in a cancer treatment reference hospital in Curitiba (South Brazil), called Hospital Erasto Gaertner, with twenty mastectomized women who, until the moment of the interview, were not submitted to a breast reconstruction. Questions about the use of the bra and the undergarment itself were made; pictures registered how it hurts a bad fitting bra, as well as some singular solutions found by those participants to improve their condition. Among the results is a discussion proposed by authors suggesting enhancement of some aspects of Ergonomy and, mainly, a focus in the project of design of the bra, which, in the point of view defended in this approach, needs an asymmetrical band, especially in the cases when the new anatomy comes from the removal of axillary lymph nodes.