Non-Surgical Breast Enlargement

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a question about non-surgical breast enlargement.  I have read several articles about a strip tease artist from the early nineteen sixties who was born a man. His / her stage name was ” Alexandra, the Great 48 “. His birth name was Gary Paradis. 48 stood for the size of her breasts.

A book ” I Want To Be A Woman ” was published in 1964 recounting her journey from a man to a woman. In the book, she states that she obtained her fantastic bust by applying estrogen or progesterone creams to her breasts. I have always read that these hormonal creams are ineffective.

What is your opinion about non-surgical breast enlargement with hormone creams?

A: Having seen pictures of her and knowing that she was originally a man, my opinion would be that her breast size would be impossible to obtain by any form of topical hormonal creams.

Topical hormones work to stimulate existing breast tissue. While some breast size change may be possible, the amount of breast augmentation would be limited in a genetic male who is trying to grow breasts. This is fairly well known by the more common scenario today of transgender females taking oral and even implanted hormones with only very modest non-surgical breast enlargement results. Toping dosing would be far less.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana