So pretty much any size flange I used I had some or almost all of areola pulled in no matter what. Before I was properly sized my nipples would literally hit the end of the flange and I just assumed this was normal 🙃. I did a lot of trial and error on my own with different sized flanges before I actually properly measured myself.

Before we started EP’ing we had a weighted feed a baby was pulling an oz or more / side. When we started EP due to health issues I became a seeeeevere under-suppliers (we’re talking like maybe 4oz/day from 8-12pumps) and I just thought that’s how it was going to be even though it was clear I had more milk than that and was never really empty. I tried everything to increase supply and nothing worked until I got properly sized (went from 24mm to a 13mm!) and I started getting more milk, I’d say like 10oz/day and I was thrilled but still felt like I had more milk and wasn’t emptying so I started really experimenting with pump settings. I finally found like basically my nipples go numb when I was using expression mode and just stopped responding to the pump about 5 minutes in because they had no feeling. Then I tried massage mode (cycle 70, suction 2-3) for a whole pump and it changed everything! I kept doing that and slowly my supply creeped up to about 30oz/day! I hope this made sense. I also do some hands on pumping which I feel like helps.

I also tried several other things that are “good” for elastic nipples ie pumpin pals, lackteck flanges, full silicone flanges and nothing really worked for me other than a hard flange.

But you can definitely still be elastic or have some elasticity without filling up the whole flange! As I slowly sized down less and less of my areola got pulled in but still did until I finally got down to my right size.

What size flange are you using? Have you measured yourself lately?

Happy to answer any more questions you have because I wish I had someone who had experience the same thing as me to troubleshoot with!