A Sydney woman says she has found it so difficult to find a job that she has had to go on welfare – and she claims it’s her size 12HH breasts that are the problem.
Nim Murphy, 27, was previously doing physical labour as a roadie for music shows and festivals, but in recent years, the pain has become too extreme that is hard for her to work.
“I can’t work, I can’t exercise properly, I can’t do most things,” she told A Current Affair.
“I don’t want to be on the dole and not doing anything.”
Contributing to the pain is the reversal of the lordotic curvature – where her spine curves back in her neck instead of forwards. Nim says this “isn’t directly caused by the weight of breasts or anything, but they exacerbate the symptoms that come from it.”
“I get migraines, I’ve got constant shoulder and neck pain.”
“About two and a half years ago I had to call in sick because I got out the front door and started vomiting in my front yard just from the pain and so I had to stop working.”
She desperately wants breast reduction surgery but is struggling to afford it in her current financial state and no private health insurance.
While her condition is a medical one and not cosmetic, her case isn’t considered high priority and she will therefore be on a waiting list for years under the public health system.
A recent study has proven that breast reduction surgery can hugely improve overall health and wellbeing, something that is reiterated by plastic surgeon and secretary of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons, Dr Dan Kennedy.
He said: “When people come back after their operations they say that they’ve had a dramatic relief in neck pain back pain shoulder pain, that they can exercise more freely.”
