The World's Largest Bra - When Life Hands You Lemons, Stick Them In Your Bra and....

Category: File - :Buestenhalter-2.jpg|thumb|Bra - front

A brassiere (pronounced , ; commonly referred to as a bra ) is an article of clothing that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting a woman's breasts.

Women wear bras for a variety of purposes, for support, to improve the shape of breasts, to reduce or to enlarge the perceived breast size, or to restrain breast movement during an activity such as during exercise, to enhance their cleavage, to facilitate nursing. Most bras are designed to lift the breasts off the chest wall if they sag and to restrain them from movement. Bra designers strive to produce a garment that is both practical and attractive.

Some women and members of the medical community question the common assumption in Western society that all women should wear a bra, and a slowly increasing percentage of women prefer to not wear a bra on a regular basis. The bra has become a feminine icon or symbol charged with political and cultural meanings that overlay its practical purpose. Some feminists consider the brassiere a symbol of the repression of women's bodies.Uplift: The Bra in America. Jane Farrell-Beck and Colleen Gau. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002 xvi, 243 pp. ISBN 0-8122-3643-2. Historically, when a young girl gets her first bra, it may be symbolic of her coming of age..

A breast implant is a prosthesis used to alter the size and shape of a woman's breasts (known as breast augmentation, breast enlargement, mammoplasty enlargement, augmentation mammoplasty or the common slang term boob job) for cosmetic reasons, to reconstruct the breast (e.g. after a mastectomy or to correct congenital chest wall deformities), or as an aspect of male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Pectoral implants are a related device used in cosmetic and reconstructive procedures of the male chest wall. A breast tissue expander is a temporary breast implant used during staged breast reconstruction procedures. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, breast augmentation is the most commonly performed cosmetic surgical procedure in the United States. According to data collected by the American Society of Plastic Surgery, in 2007, 307,230 breast augmentation procedures were performed in the U.S., a 12% decrease compared to the previous year. This decrease has been associated with the financial challenges posed by a struggling economy. Despite the decrease, however, breast augmentation surgeries remained as the number one surgical cosmetic procedure performed in the U.S.

There are two primary types of breast implants: saline-filled and silicone-gel-filled implants. Saline implants have a silicone elastomer shell filled with sterile saline liquid. Silicone gel implants have a silicone shell filled with a viscous silicone gel. Several alternative types of breast implants had been developed, such as polypropylene string or soy oil, but these are no longer manufactured.

Category: Image - :Dr. Placik Breast Augmentation.jpg|thumb||right|Bilateral breast augmentation with submuscular placement of 350 cc saline impants through an inframmary fold

Category: Image - :BreastImplant09.JPG|thumb|Chest X-ray showing bilateral breast implants.