Shrinking breast size?

jessica0927

Hi.  My mom is a 10 year IDC survivor.  She was treated with lumpectomy, radiation and hormone therapy.  She has recently noticed a shrinkage in the size of the treated breast.  What could be causing this 10 years later?  A late side effect of radiation?  She just had a normal clinical exam and diagnostic mammogram last week.  She sees her onco at the end of the month and I assume will mention it.  I am just worried it could be a new problem.  Hoping its not though   Any ideas??

nancyh

Dear Jessica,

Breast changes are always worth having checked.  It seems unlikely that there's any problem especially if she just had a clean mammo last week.  Good that she sees her oncologist soon, hopefully the onc will say it is nothing to worry about.  Best wishes. 

CoolBreeze

Never forget aging - it does funny things to us, especially our breasts.  Hope everything turns out okay.

Prema

My breast has srunken comared to the 'good' one and seems to continue to do so. I had lumpectomy, axillary clearance, chemo and  full on radation, 30 sessions. My dx was in mar '10. Anyone any ideas why this should be?

lagaviota

I had a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation on the left breast 13 years ago.  Before that, it was the "bigger" breast but it's shrunken over time and while I notice it, I've never received any complaints from the men I've had relationships.  I have found a particular bra that I prefer to use now that masks the difference (at least it does in my opinion). I go to school with a lot of professors that are long-time nurses...they all tell me it's completely normal after radiation treatment.

Aussie-Sharon

Hi, I had a mastecomy and reconstruction, my reconstructed breast is definitely smaller now than the "Other" side, but I figure near on 10 years of aging, weight change! and general wear and tear probably has something to do with it...I was a bit paranoid last year and insisted they do an ultrasound on the reconstructed breast to check the implant hadn't leaked but all seemed fine.

It was a subject raised at a get together I attended in March and it seemed almost everyone had the same issue, as time went on their breast cancer breast seemed to shrink OR the "good" one got bigger.

I've only ever had one lady tell me I had one breast bigger than the other and I figured either no-one else pays much attention or they just aren't as rude as her:) lol

 x