Women's Health

Understanding Breast Problems -- The Basics

Breast Self-Exams continued...

Any time you find a new or unusual lump in your breast, have your doctor check it to make sure it is not cancer. Most lumps are harmless. The best test for distinguishing a cyst from a solid tumor is ultrasound; a needle biopsy may also be done.

Mammograms -- detailed X-ray pictures of the breasts -- can reveal tumors too tiny to be felt by hand. There is disagreement as to when a woman should start getting mammograms: Some doctors say between ages 35 and 40; others say not until age 50. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends yearly mammograms starting at age 40. If you have a family history of breast cancer, especially in your mother or sister, your doctor may want you to start them earlier.

Breast Pain

Breast pain can have many causes, including the normal swelling of breast tissue during the menstrual cycle. Other causes include infection or injury; growths, including cancer; and perhaps diet.

The general swelling of breast tissue with your period can be painful, but it is not dangerous, and no treatment is necessary if you can tolerate the discomfort. Each monthly cycle brings about changes in hormones, including more estrogen and progesterone, that bring more fluid into the breasts, expanding tissue, stretching nerve fibers, and causing pain. Some women have this painful swelling just before their periods, with symptoms easing near the end of the menstrual flow. Others havee it as a side effect of birth control pills.

Trauma and infection in the breast have the same symptoms you would see elsewhere in your body. Infections tend to become walled off from surrounding tissue, producing small abscesses. This may give them the appearance of cysts. If you think you have an infection, see your doctor. Your doctor will usually prescribe antibiotics, although many times the infection will come back and may require the removal of the infected tissue.

Cysts may produce pain, but breast cancer rarely does -- although pain does not rule out the possibility of cancer.