To qualify, each breast must weigh at least 10 pounds. Today, many teens afflicted with the condition go under the knife before the age of 17 to reduce both breasts into a more manageable size.

You may have noticed Soleil Moon Frye was in the news for winning a best documentary at the San Diego Film Festival for a film, Sonny Boy, about her Alzheimer-stricken father.

But Soleil was best known for her four-year run as a bright, adorable 12-year-old on Punky Brewster.

As the five-foot-one Soleil matured and grew into a woman, she developed a 38DD bust line which presented a whole host of problems. For one, she could not run for exercise.

If she tried to jog, boys would taunt: “Hey, Punky Boobster!” There were also practical considerations, with Soleil once admitting it was even hard to give somebody a hug.

The medical complications were all too real however; the huge weight caused back problems and made her bra straps painfully dig into her shoulders.

And young love was a problem, too, because no matter how much a teen lad cared for her, the main attraction became…..well, hey, you’ve got the picture by now.

If she moved too much or too fast in a film, her condition showed a massive chest heaving up and down.

It’s a long video, but the first few seconds show Soleil running with a massive bosom, that rises and falls like huge ocean waves.

Back then, Soleil told People Magazine: “People started to think of me as a bimbo.”

Shortly before her 16th birthday, Soleil went under the knife for breast reduction surgery, an operation that was performed on 88,732 women and teens in 2008, the most current year for which statistics exist.  (17,902 men also had the procedure in ‘08.)

According to the record books, the problem has been with us for quite a while and was first described by doctors in 1648; the largest recorded weight was 67 pounds per breast.

The only known medical treatment is plastic surgery.

To qualify for the procedure these days, each of the patient’s breasts must tip the scales at a weight of at least 3.5 pounds.

Read more about breast reduction.

In America, a Registered Nurse with some experience can command a five-figure sign-on bonus that can turn a Wall Street tycoon green with envy.

But in Europe, one employer has found the way to attract the crème de la crème of nursing staff: Ask them to work for breast implants!

The  ISCARE LIGHTHOUSE Clinic Centre in Prague, Czech Republic, has – like many health facilities worldwide — suffered from a lack of top tier talent – that is, until they hit on the unusual sign-on bonus.

Not only are free breast implants offered, staff can also choose liposuction or tummy tucks!

After all, much of the stock-in-trade at The Iscare Clinic is plastic surgery procedures.
(View the Czech plastic surgery clinic website.)

For many potential plastic surgery patients in Germany, Great Britain and France, the Czech Republic is attractive because it offers popular rejuvenation surgical procedures at a much lower cost of plastic surgery than typically found in their native lands.

According to RussiaToday.com, the cost of a breast augmentation at the clinic is $3500; the same procedure would cost twice to three times that much in, say, England.

The clinic can charge so little because overall costs in the Czech Republic are much lower.

So the average Czech nurse making a typical salary of $900 a month – about the same as a bus driver there — would be hard-pressed to ever afford breast enlargement.

Said one 31-year-old Czech nurse who signed on for breast enhancement: “I would rather have plastic surgery than a free car. We were always taught that if a nurse is nice, bright, loves her work and looks attractive, patients recover faster.”

Consequently, many trained, credential nurses have left the Czech Republic for Germany, the United Kingdom and other west European countries where wages are higher. Reportedly, the Czech Republic has about a 6,000-nurse shortage.

Nurses, physicians and other staff who sign on for three years can have the no-charge plastic surgery after they have served the three years.

So far, ten of 50 nurses at the clinic have taken the plastic surgery option when renewing their contracts while one male physician is thinking about having liposuction.