Ellie Jaycock, 17, Says 34K Breasts Are Ruining Her Life – But Faces A Four-Year Wait To Have Them Reduced

by Deborah Arthurs

2-9-2012

Puberty is a tough time for teenage girls. Whether developing too quickly or too slowly, their changing shape can be a source of much anguish.

Spare a thought then for Ellie Jaycock, who at just 17 years of age has size 34K breasts.

She has been diagnosed with a rare condition that causes rapid breast development from the onset of puberty onwards.

Rare: Ellie Jaycock, 17, suffers from juvenile macromastia, a condition that causes rapid breast growth

Now Ellie, a student from East Looe, Cornwall, is desperate to have surgery to reduce the size of her breasts, saying they are causing crippling back pain.

But doctors have refused to operate until she is 21 and has stopped growing.

Ellie, who is 5ft 4in and weighs nine and a half stone (one stone of which is her breasts), says that her breasts haven’t changed for nine months – but doctors still refuse to operate. 

She is a slim size 10 but has to wear size 18 tops to accommodate her bust.

‘My boobs are ruining my life,’ she says in an interview with Closer magazine. ‘I have chronic back pain and I’ve lost all my confidence. Girls call me a slag and peoplescream, “Who do you think you are, Jordan?” I don’t know how I’ll cope until I’m 21.’

At first, Ellie’s breasts seemed to be developing normally and she bought her first bra, a size 34B, when she was 12 years old.

Bullied: Ellie was taunted by classmates, who called her Tittie Tania, and by strangers who called her slag

But from then on, Ellie’s bust began to increase in size dramatically.

At 13, her breasts grew from a C-cup to a DD-cup during the summer holidays. She began to suffer shooting pains in her breasts as well as crippling shoulder and backache.

By the time she was 14, she needed a size 34F bra. Her stepmother Sandy, 39, a teaching assistant, and father Richard, 44, an electrician, took her daughter to see the doctor, who referred Ellie to a specialist.

She was diagnosed with the condition and prescribed painkillers and hormones to slow down the growth.

But the drugs failed to work. Months passed and Ellie’s bust grew to an H-cup. The back pain became excruciating.

A shy girl who disliked confrontation, Ellie was devastated to find she was soon singled out by bullies.

Classmates gave her the nickname Tittie Tania, and strangers on the street shouted abuse at her, mocking her for what they assumed were grotesque implants.

Painful: Ellie suffers chronic back and shoulder pain owing to her breasts, which weigh around a stone, but doctors refuse to operate until she is 21

At 15, Ellie and her family pleaded with doctors to allow her to have her H-cup breasts reduced.

But because of the likelihood of her body changing further, Ellie was told she had to go on the NHS waiting list until she was 21.

Doctors agree that performing surgery too soon could cause harm to her breasts, with the possibility that her milk ducts could be damaged making breastfeeding difficult in the future.

The operation would cost �7,000 privately – a price Ellie, who is now studying hotel management at college, can not afford.

And while Ellie has left the school bullies behind, she is still attracting unwelcome attention.

She tells Closer that she had to leave a work placement in a restaurant last summer, after she found a cartoon of herself in the staff room that said ‘her husband will never need pillows.’

‘I find it hard to meet boys, because I get suspicious about why they’re talking to me,’ she says.

‘I just feel it’s unfair that no one will help me,’ she says.

‘At least girls with flat chests can use special bras to boost their busts – but I can’t hide my boobs.’