Dense and fibroycystic breasts

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  • my3sunz42
    my3sunz42 Member Posts: 148
    edited May 2012

    Sandi - I agree completely with you!! I too have 'dense fibercystic' breasts ... and I too rec'd a normal mamogram and the ultra sound struggled to find my masses through the dense tissue. I'll follow your lead and will share my story with others so they too can begin to ask questions and drive for further testing before they hit the point you & I have hit.

    Cheers!

    cheryl 

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  • my3sunz42
    my3sunz42 Member Posts: 148
    edited May 2012

    Kelly - request further testing ... starting with an MRI. Don't take "NO" for an answer. You are your own patient advocate!

    cheryl 

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  • FioreTD
    FioreTD Member Posts: 13
    edited May 2012

    Hi! I'm 27 years old and my mom and grandmother had breast cancer. I've been having sharp pain on my left breast for 3 months. I went to see a PA and she told me it was muscular (I knew it wasn't). The pain continued so I went to see my primary physician. She said my breast is lumpy and dense. I'm having an ultrasound in 2 days and she referred me to a specialist. Should I be worried? Thanks! 

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  • FioreTD
    FioreTD Member Posts: 13
    edited May 2012

    I should've added that my grandmother had breast cancer when she was 40 and my mom when she was 35. They were both very young!

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  • GODISGOOD2012
    GODISGOOD2012 Member Posts: 63
    edited May 2012

    FloreTD, check out pictures on line of what the MRI or other Imaging such as BSGI will show compared to what an UltraSound will show.  Tumors and dense breast tissue are both WHITE, so it is hard to distinguish the difference between the tumor or the tissue when seen on an ultrasound.  

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  • Cherilynn64
    Cherilynn64 Member Posts: 342
    edited May 2012

    Best thing you can do is what you did - pass the word. I have emailed and posted on Facebook and tell complete strangers in doctors' offices about the Are You Dense website. I never knew mine were the highest density on the scale until I was sitting in the breast surgeon's office hearing about cancer. Unreal.

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  • glanter
    glanter Member Posts: 78
    edited May 2012

    @Liz08.....have you discussed this with a breast surgeon in your new community?  They may have a completely different suggestion for you.  I'm in the Charleston community and would be happy to give you some names to call for another opinion.

     Gail

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  • Blessings2011
    Blessings2011 Member Posts: 4,276
    edited May 2012

    I had very dense, heavy, fibrocystic breasts (38DDD!) that were always painful. They felt like bags of rocks, and self-exams were impossible.

    I had to rely on mammograms, which I had gotten every year since I was 40. (I'm 61)

    Each time, I'd get a chipper postcard in the mail informing me that "Congratulations! There was no sign of cancer in your mammogram!"

    But since my mom was dx'd with BC at the age of 61, with each year I became more uneasy.

    I asked my PCP for at least an ultrasound, to which he replied that USs were not done as screening tools.

    Then 9 months after my last mammo, my left nipple started bleeding. That led to a series of 7 different procedures and biopsies, and a wonderful radiologist who said that she could tell the beginnings of changes as far back as two years ago. (But she was quick to point out that it was because she knew what she was looking for; that may not have been so on just a "screening" mammo and a different radiologist.)

    My dx was mostly DCIS, with a microinvasion of IDC. According to Dr. Susan Love's book, most cancers have been in the body for 8 - 10 years before being detected.

    If my nipple had not begun to bleed I have absolutely no doubt that I would have gotten another one of those "Congratulations!" postcards after my next mammo.

    I had a BMX w/ recon on December 5, 2011, and have never, ever, regretted my decision.

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  • 1jollydog
    1jollydog Member Posts: 2
    edited May 2012

    I see that yours was 6cm and Grade 3.  What treatments did you get?

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