A total of 1 in 3 women in the UK and France are unsatisfied with their busts, while Italian and Polish women are the most “breast confident,” the study found.

While younger women aged 18-29 have a tendency to crave cleavage, those aged 30-50 hanker after a more lifted shape. Overall, the study found that 41 percent of women in their thirties are unhappy with their décolletage.

While motherhood has been shown to boost overall confidence, 40 percent of moms admitted to being less happy with their breasts after having children, with half feeling that they have lost their “perfect” shape and 63 percent bemoaning sagging.

Some 70 percent of women surveyed agreed that a well-fitting bra was the quickest way to a confidence boost — however, only 60 percent knew their size and only a third had been fitted in the last year. In total, just 10 percent of the women said they invest a lot of effort in to finding the right bra. Italian women came out top in this category, with 69 percent getting regular fittings.

Lucy Aphramor, founder of UK health consultancy Well Founded and one of the seven experts implicated in carrying out the study, argues that breast confidence is tied up with the social pressures involved in the aging process. “We live in a youth obsessed culture, and women whose sense of self is tied up with norms of physical perfection will likely struggle with their changing body when they start aging, and changing breast structure is clearly going to be a part of that,” she explains.

The study surveyed over 6,000 women in the European region between the ages of 20 and 50.

– AFP Relaxnews