We usually hear about breastfeeding, because in the human species it is the woman who breastfeeds her young, but have you ever wondered if man can produce human milk?
The answer is: in exceptional cases, it can. While breastfeeding is inherent in female sex, male breastfeeding is a strange but possible phenomenon.
The mammary gland, with its ducts and nipple for the output of milk, is present in both women and men. Only that men's breasts are not naturally programmed to produce milk, unless there are circumstances that modify the functionality of male breasts.
What can cause milk production in man?
One of the causes related to male lactation is prolactinoma, a benign tumor in the pituitary or pituitary gland, responsible for the secretion of prolactin, a hormone that induces milk production and regulates sexual function in men.
Symptoms of prolactinoma in men include decreased libido, impotence, visual impairment, headache, gynecomastia (breast enlargement), hypopituitarism (low levels of pituitary function) and galactorrhea (milk secretion).
The estrogen or progesterone exposure, hormones released by women during pregnancy, stimulate the mammary glands of men and can cause milk secretion. Also the use of certain medications such as those given to men suffering from prostate cancer, tranquilizers, antipsychotics, antihypertensives and gastroesophageal reflux and vomiting controllers.
Hormonal imbalances in puberty or old age, as well as states of malnutrition or stress can cause disorders in the pituitary gland, regulating the production of hormones, causing it to increase the amount of prolactin and generate milk production.
There's also non pathological conditions which can make possible the production of milk in men, such as stimulating the mammary glands through massages, stimulating the nipples and suction or aspiration.
Sucking the nipple, as with mothers during breastfeeding, favors the synthesis of a greater amount of the hormone prolactin. It is believed that if a man uses a breast pump for 20 minutes every day for two weeks, he may end up producing milk.
The amount of milk that can be produced is less than that produced by the woman who has just given birth, and depends mainly on the levels of prolactin that it secretes. In women it begins to segregate from the beginning of pregnancy, and it increases until the time of delivery, when its quantity increases more than ever.
Although there are studies that ensure that the composition of male milk is almost identical to breast milk, and therefore, suitable for human consumption, it is not known what composition it may have in cases where pathological causes are involved and the effect that milk can have on the baby.
Exceptional cases of men who have breastfed
There have been documented cases of men who breastfed their newborn babies when the mother died, or of World War II prisoners who fed others with milk from their breasts.
In 2002, the case of a 38-year-old man from Sri Lanka (the one you see in the photo) who lost his wife during childbirth and in the desperation of seeing her daughter rejecting artificial milk was offered, offered her breast and breastfed.
There is also a moving story in 1992 during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina when a soldier saw a woman who had just had a baby die.
To transfer it, the baby was tied with jackets so that it was stuck to the chest, and instinctively the baby began to suck the nipple. They stayed like this for several days until the soldier arrived at the place where he had to deliver the baby to the authorities and found that he had been able to produce milk.
The continued sucking of the baby when attached to the soldier's chest caused the stimulation of the mammary glands and the segregation of prolactin, a hormone responsible for milk production.
As you can see, although human evolution has wanted the woman to breastfeed her babies, man can also produce milk In exceptional cases.
