Lisa Kovanda
2 min readJun 6, 2021

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I’m the opposite. I was a gymnast when I was younger, and hitting puberty was a death knell for gymnastics if you developed large breasts, meaning any breasts. Most of my teammates resorted to using athletic tape to create the equivalent of a corset in reverse, to contain instead of enhance their budding boobs. Many gave up the sport because they couldn’t adjust their technique to accommodate their changing bodies.

After I “retired” from the sport, I actually put on enough weight to hit puberty, but nothing happened beyond the obvious sign that I had, in fact, reached the age where childbearing was a possibility. I’m going to be 57 in four days, and I still have a compulsive need to apologize to my partner of over a decade for my complete lack of significant breast tissue. And for the challenge for the mammogram tech. Like I didn’t want to look at least definably feminine in profile? I have multiple autoimmune disorders, so I am thankful I was broke enough to *not* have a breast enhancement. Not because I have a problem with it, in fact, if the technology had been available then, I would have found a way to make it happen, but I was a nurse, and I knew it wasn’t the thing for me yet. When *yet*;arrived, I was menopausal. It didn’t really seem as essential, and a padded pushup bra would do the same thing for a lot less risk for additional health problems. But it is still true for women of all ages. I haven’t asked any extended care residents if there is pressure to fit into the locker room standards in nursing homes. I suspect there is.

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Lisa Kovanda

Creative soul finding her voice in spite of chronic illness. My illness is similar to MS but just as deadly. I’m currently on hospice care.