Believe it or not, wearing a bra that’s too tight can negatively impact the wearer in many ways. Here are ways to know if it’s not fitting right.
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Your skin is irritated or chafing
A bra that is tight can cause a host of skin issues, including folliculitis, dermatitis, heat rash, and hives.
Heather Downes, MD, board certified dermatologist and founder of Lake Forest Dermatology says:
When tight clothing rubs the skin, it can cause excess sweating as well as irritation and inflammation of hair follicles. Not only that, bacteria and/or fungus on the surface of the skin can more easily penetrate into these hair follicles, causing infection.
Heat rash occurs when sweat ducts are blocked, and hives can develop through physical pressure on the skin.
You’re constantly adjusting it
You may find yourself constantly adjusting the straps or band as the bra shifts with your movement.
Downes says:
Tight clothing, such as Spanx, on the abdomen can increase intra-abdominal pressure to the point that one can experience acid reflux from acid being pushed from the stomach into the lower esophagus
You’re spilling out of your cups
Sometimes a bra seems to fit fine in the dressing room, but as you move around throughout the day, your breasts begin to slip out of the cups in the front or on the sides.
Robynne Winchester, owner of Bay Area lingerie chain Revelation in Fit says:
Cups that are too small can be painful to wear, especially if they have underwires
A properly fitted underwire should exactly trace the root of your breast, and it should lie flat on your ribcage
Your breasts not fitting snugly in the cups or underwire that sits on the breast itself can also be signs that your bra is too small.
Winchester suggests:
The most common bra fit issue is a cup that’s too small and a band that’s too loose. This results in a bra that is unsupportive, uncomfortable, and leads to issues such as shoulder and back pain.
He says that people often compensate for too-loose bands by tightening the straps too much, which puts strain on shoulders.
Speaking of tight straps, Downes says a common problem is skin issues worsening through overly tightened straps.
What I see… in my practice are tight bra straps that rub on benign skin lesions such as seborrheic keratoses and moles. These lesions can then swell or bleed and can feel painful.
