Entries Tagged 'Allerigies' ↓

Ok, so remember way back when I bought the “BEST. BRA. EVER.“? Remember how it lifted up this post breast feeding, mid thirties mama and gave me all sorts of much needed confidence? Yeah, well, I have loved those bras ever since. Until about the last month or so. When I started having a burning, itchy reaction to them.

I kid you not.

I won’t post pictures – sorry stalkers – but imagine a very red, bra shaped, welted area on my chest right now. And it itches. And it has totally freaked me out.

I had it happen before to a lesser degree about a month ago. I thought it was a fluke thing. But still, I took a break from them awhile. It was hard because I love those bras, truly they do a fabulous job perking my girls up. But, like weaning myself from a drug, I did and waited for the rash on only one small part of my body to go away. After a few weeks, it did.

And then this weekend, I pulled one out again. After one day of wearing it, I woke up the next morning with the rash covering exactly where I wore the bra. I showed my husband and his reaction was not the usual reaction I get when I flash him. He looked horrified. And along with feeling and looking red, welted and irritated, my breasts also felt sore and achy. And so itchy. Did I mention the itchy part? Really really itchy.

This is not ok.

So, its Monday morning right now and I am waiting to call my OBGYN. But while I wait, I did some bra googling. And what do you know. Check out the google page I got for “Allergic reaction to Victoria Secret bra“.

And THEN, check out the news video I watched about women with SAME reaction. Sure this news story is from a year ago (as is most of the press I found), but still I am stunned. For real. My rash is exactly the same.

And here are some more articles.

And what’s the apparent culprit??

FORMALDEHYDE!!!

My jaw is still hanging open. For all the money dropped on these damn bras, we get formaldehyde and painful, itchy, burning breasts?

This is NOT the way to start my Monday.

My plan? I’ll call my OBGYN today. I will probably take a few pics (sorry folks, park’s closed – you won’t be seeing those I’m afraid, just take my word for it). And then I will call Victoria Secret. Minimally, I want my money back so I can replace them with non formaldehydey bras.

Shoot. I thought external, synthetic, booby enhancing materials were surely safer than internal, synthetic, booby enhancing materials. …right?

I’ll keep you posted.

**UPDATE: July 8 **

I’ve had a few people ask me what brand of Victoria’s Secret bra gave me this reaction. I have two and both are from the Victoria’s Secret Angels “Air” collection. I can’t seem to find the exact bra online however (which makes me wonder if it’s been discontinued). Also, I noticed from some of the news coverage that certain bras which caused a reaction were made in China. Mine were made in the Phillipines. Honestly it doesn’t matter to me where they were made, what matters is that they were made badly.

I’ve had many women react to this post. Interestingly, many women have had the same reaction I have but refuse to stop wearing the bras because they love their support. (I love their support too but still can’t even wear a regular bra for very long thanks to all the itching I’m experiencing.) Regardless its unacceptable that we dish out $40 per bra and then put up with welting and rashes just because it’s a “good bra”. Damn. We deserve better than this.

Finally, I have been in touch with my Doctor, I’ve taken pictures of the reaction and am currently waiting for a supervisor to respond to my complaint (custumer service said it would take up to 24 hours). I will write a new post with the updates as soon as I can. Until then, please feel free to link and retweet this post so that your friends and readers are made aware of what I have learned has been called “Victoria’s dirty little secret”.