Finally someone who knows how to measure breasts! Apparently no one noticed my previous post about proper bra fitting. Are you perhaps from Poland ?

Yeah, I'm from Poland.

Apparently in Poland we know more about breasts than they do in other countries ;) And I wear 30D too :)

I'm having back problems and my bra fits perfectly fine. So did my mom before her breast reduction. So, I can assure you big breasts can lead to back problems, even with perfect support.

The measurements for different countries are different, if she measures for your country, she may not have a correctly fitting bra for her country.

Yeah I'm a "DDD" and Victoria's Secret told me I was a "B" And they said that my "AA" sister was a "C" How she could ever think she was correct in saying my sister had bigger boobs than me is still a mystery to us both.

You're not very accurate yourself, the cup letter without band measurement means nothing ;) for example I'm a D, but in fact I have small breasts, because I have a small back size – 30. 30D is roughly the size of 34B, so not that huge, huh?

Actually it does matter on it's own. The letter is the actual size of your boob. The number is just the size of your rib cage and the letter is how many inches you boobs extend off of your rib cage. A 30D means the girl has a rib size of about 25"-26" and her boobs stick out about 4" A 34B means the girl has a rib size of 29"-30" and her boobs stick out about 2" So no, they are not about the same size. There's a 2" difference between them. :P

Weird, coz I used to wear 34B (sometimes 34A) for about 10 years and now I know that I'm 30D. As far as I'm concerned, the actual size of breasts is determined by the difference between the letter and the number. You can't tell what is the actual size of your boobs giving just a letter, coz 36D bra has a bigger cup than 30D obvioulsly. For example if a girl has a rib size 68cm and breasts size 84cm then it's 16cm difference and it's 30D.

In france, we don't use the same numbers but the letters are the same than in the US for example. The letter corresponds to bust size minus the ribcage size. So every A, every B,... etc have rougly the same size. What may change is the shape of the underwiring. I don't know if it's true, but the person who explained it to me sells lingerie for a living.

I've got to agree with msselfdestruct... For every band size you go down, your cup size usually increases. So, if you're a 34B and you try on a 30D and it fits perfectly, what does that tell you? 34 minus two band sizes = 30. B plus two cup sizes = D. They're basically the same, though if you actually are a 34B you won't necessarily fit into a 30D (which is incredibly hard to find... a band size of 30 is pretty rare in most bra stores. You can easily find them in specialty stores, but not many women can afford/choose to go there). It all depends on your frame.

The letter IS the difference when referring to breast size. Just because two very different sized bras may appear to have the same cup size, doesn't mean they actually are the same. If you measure them you'll see a difference. That mentality is what causes so many women to be wearing the wrong size.

Are the people in the bra stores giving me the wrong idea then? Last time I was in a few months ago, that's what I was told. From what I understand, many women simply guess their size and buy whatever fits without actually having been sized professionally. I'm not going to lie, for the longest time I did the same thing. That's more likely the reason too many women are wearing the wrong bra size. That and, they don't know how a bra -should- fit.

Yes, they either lied to you, or they don't know what they're talking about. Someone who doesn't fully understand how a bra should fit could easily be a 32C and wear both a 30D and 34B and think that they fit. And yes, I agree, lack of sizing and/or education contributes much more to wearing the wrong size. The confusion I mentioned just seemed to apply to the thread.