Large, painful lump diagnosed by biopsy as fibrocystic changes?

imdes

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and desperate for some support / answers.

Very quick back story: I am 22 years old and have a vast family history of BRCA 1 but have not done genetic testing myself yet as I am pretty young.

About 3-4 weeks ago, out of nowhere, I started experiencing moderate boob pain and felt a large lump or maybe just a thickening of tissue in the spot it hurt just to the left of my nipple. I waited for my period before I went to my GYN to make sure it wasn't related to that. There were no positive changes with my period, the pain seemed to get worse and my boob even started to look more enlarged as the days passed. Went to my GYN who said she agreed it did not feel normal and referred me for a US and mammogram.

US showed nothing in the area I felt pain in but they found a spot about 1-2 inches above it near my armpit they wanted to biopsy. They also refused to do the mammogram. The radiologist said it was a complete coincidence they found that spot and it was not at all related to my symptoms. Thought this was extremely strange, but did not question it because I assumed the biopsy would help explain the plain lower down. Was just called back with my results today from the lab I was referred to and they said "we found fibrocystic breast changes that are completely normal and can be ignored unless something changes."

My GYN is not in the office today so I will call her tomorrow to ask more questions and explain that the biopsy was not done where we both felt something, but I am worried she is going to blow me off as well. This cannot be normal and they cannot leave me in pain like this!

Has anyone had a similar experience? Or any experience of being misdiagnosed or not taken very seriously? I am not sure it is cancer, but I figured it was at least a cyst or a benign tumor. Was not expecting an answer of "it's normal"

MinusTwo

imdes - I'm sure others will chime in but I wanted to comment that from what I've seen & read it probably is "normal" at your age. Particularly the swelling with your period. Along with many women, I had dense, fibercystic breasts all my life. One of the things that helped my breast pain when I was younger was to quit caffeine. Hopefully the Gyn will take the time to give you a more detailed explanation tomorrrow.

imdes

I understand your reasoning there, but you must have misread my post. Or saw my age and jumped to conclusions without reading it at all. The The swelling has gotten worse over the 3-4 weeks when I fist noticed problems. Period came and went and had absolutely no change to the symptoms in my boob. I even waited for my period before going to my first gyn appointment just to be sure there was no correlation.

MinusTwo

imdes - There were no positive changes with my period, the pain seemed to get worse

Sorry - I read your above sentence that pain got worse with your period. I'm glad that you had it checked out and hope your doc is able to allay your concerns.