Indentation and extreme anxiety

madkas

Hello all,

I am young 23 year old who has just started grad school and who most likely has health anxiety. Last week I saw a reminder to do a breast exam since it was breast cancer awareness month, and while I found no lump - I noticed in the mirror that one of my breasts has a slightly flatter spot on the lower outter quadrant. As you can probably guess, I freaked out. When I'm standing just normally you can see a slight flattening, but when I squish my breast in there's a dimple-like indentation. Since being hyper-aware of this, I couldn't sleep, couldn't do school work, didn't really want to do anything except google how likely it is I have breast cancer. It didn't help that as soon as you type in "breast dimple" all you see is breast cancer in big letters. The dimple is gone if I lift my arms or if I don't squish, but the flat bit is still there. However, something that makes me feel better is that at a routine exam just a month ago my gyno didn't find anything (but of course then it was just routine) and if I squeeze my other breast I have a slightly similar (but much smaller) dimple in the same area but with no flattening. I don't think I can feel any lump, or feel any pain, but of course with anxiety I keep having phantom pains throughout my chest, arms, back, and headaches. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow and am so scared my PCP will just brush me off because I'm young. For those who've been through it all, or those who have had similar dimples/indentations, is there anything that can ease my mind? I know my likelihood of having cancer is very low but with such a large red flag like an indentation, I can't help but fly into a panic and never stop googling my symptoms and horror stories of young women with very aggressive cancer. Another question - if my PCP doesn't refer me for further testing, should push for an US or a mammogram? I think it would help calm my anxiety. But I've also read that with a dimple most doctors will send a referral. Please respond, my anxious mind is losing it.

Thanks