Are fibrocystic breasts always dense breasts?

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Martha615
Martha615 Member Posts: 38
edited June 2014 in High Risk for Breast Cancer


Hi,


I wonder if someone could tell me whether fibrocystic breasts are always dense breasts?


I imagine I have fibrocystic breasts because my breasts are quite sensitive for 2 weeks out of each of my cycles. The texture is a little granular, too. My breasts swell and unswell with each cycle. And by the way, none of this is getting any better with age! I am 50 and it is the same as when I was 30.


Thanks so much!

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited December 2013


    As far as I know, having dense breasts and having fibrocystic breasts are related but they aren't really the same. Having fibrocystic breasts does not increase breast cancer risk, whereas having dense breasts does (although not nearly as much as is often assumed). Both conditions are so common (60% of women have fibrocystic breasts; 75% of pre-menopausal women have dense breasts) that they are often found together.


    What you describe sounds like classic symptoms of fibrocystic breasts. If you are still getting your period, there is no reason why you would expect your breasts to be less fibrocystic - this hopefully will happen over time once you enter full menopause.


    Signs and symptoms of fibrocystic breasts may include:

    • Breast lumps or areas of thickening that tend to blend into the surrounding breast tissue
    • Generalized breast pain or tenderness
    • Fluctuating size of breast lumps
    • Green or dark brown nonbloody nipple discharge that tends to leak without pressure or squeezing
    • Changes that occur in both breasts, rather than just one
    • Monthly increase in breast pain or lumpiness from midcycle (ovulation) to just before your period


    Fibrocystic breast changes occur most often in women in their 20s to 50s. Rarely do postmenopausal women experience fibrocystic breast changes, unless they're on hormone therapy....


    ...When examined under a microscope, fibrocystic breast tissue includes distinct components such as:

    • Fluid-filled round or oval sacs (cysts)
    • A prominence of scar-like fibrous tissue (fibrosis)
    • Overgrowth of cells (hyperplasia) lining the milk ducts or milk-producing tissues (lobules) of the breast
    • Enlarged breast lobules (adenosis)



    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fibrocystic-breasts/DS01070/DSECTION=symptoms


    While it's often easy to feel the lumpiness and thickening of fibrocystic breasts, breast density can not be felt by hand. Breast density is assessed based on how the breast tissue appears on a mammogram.


    Breast density is a way to describe the composition of a woman's breasts. This measure compares the area of breast and connective tissue seen on a mammogram to the area of fat. Breast and connective tissue are denser than fat and this difference shows up on a mammogram.

    • High breast density means there is a greater amount of breast and connective tissue compared to fat.
    • Low breast density means there is a greater amount of fat compared to breast and connective tissue.


    http://ww5.komen.org/Content.aspx?id=19327353285

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  • Martha615
    Martha615 Member Posts: 38
    edited December 2013


    Beesie, this is such great information. You always have such edifying posts -- you are amazing. Thank you!


    I think my body is going through a kind of estrogen surge. I had fewer menstrual and pre-menstrual symptoms when I was 45 than now at 50. My period is on time, no hot flashes, nothing.


    I am trying to eat the right foods to help my body metabolise the estrogen better, so I am having no coffee, alcohol, sugar. I am eating a ton of broccoli and other cooked cruciferous vegetables. That might help and certainly cannot hurt. Supplements include high potency turmeric, a multi, vitamin D and K, and I am considering DIM, though there I came across some papers on that which make me wonder if that is good or bad. As I have fibroids and they are pretty big, I know what my estrogen levels are up as I can feel them more, so I hope it is not too crazy to imagine they are a kind of guide.


    Again, thank you!

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  • alicki
    alicki Member Posts: 661
    edited January 2014

    hello,

    There s always an exception to the rule. I have always been told that i had fatty breasts, easy to see on mammo. I had a breast réduction and fond out I in fact also have fibrocystic breasts and some hyperplasia stuff (high risk for BC)I don't understand but Will need BS to Check. My breasts were doing really weird things, redness, slight skin thickening, nipple leakage, left growing bigger than right, fatty lymph nodes. Sounded very IBCish  MRI and skin biopsies Were saying no cancer but i still wansnt getting the  explanation as to why my left breast was behaving si crazily.

    So asked for PET scan and then got them reduced. Now thinking of mastocemy. 

    All MRIs, ultrasounds and mammo missed the cystic condition of my breasts. Pathology spoke and I think the guy was so impressed by me trying to get answers that he got me to come to his lab and got me to look at microscope and showed me what my cells looked like. Incredible experience. 

    I would never recommend doing what I did. Breast reduction to get answers. Its major surgery and I had no clue what I was getting myself in for. But at last I got answers - I hope.

    Thanks

    Alicki

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited January 2014

    About 60% of women have fibrocystic breasts - it is generally not a risk factor for breast cancer.  Some women exhibit a lot of symptoms, other women have very few symptoms.  Depending on the symptoms and the severity and the particular type of fibrocystic conditions someone has (there are very many different fibrocystic conditions), fibrocystic breasts may or may not be evident on screening.

    Was your hyperplasia "atypical"?  Only atypical hyperplasia puts you at any significant increase in risk to develop breast cancer, and even at that, the risk level is often moderate and not always high (it depends on other risk factors you may have).  "Usual" hyperplasia is not a concern and certainly is not a high risk factor for breast cancer.

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  • Blessings2011
    Blessings2011 Member Posts: 4,276
    edited January 2014

    I had dense breasts, and I had fibrocystic breasts.

    They felt like socks filled with rocks.... tiny rocks, so that it was impossible for me to do a self-exam... there were hundreds of lumps everywhere.

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  • Momcat1962
    Momcat1962 Member Posts: 665
    edited January 2014

    I have fibrocystic  breasts and very dense breast tissue at age 51. When I had a biopsy last summer and the ADH was found, the BS said she had a very hard time cutting through the breast tissue, and with every cut  "multiple cysts were popping"...She kind of chuckled at that last comment...She said fluid went everywhere. 

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  • alicki
    alicki Member Posts: 661
    edited February 2014

    Hello Bessie,

    No it wasn't atypical. There was all sort of weird B9 things, (a friend of mine is in the process of translating my path report from French to English and I'll post it) but not yet atypical. Any reliable information of fibrocystic breasts (I had a partial hysterectomy, womb only) would be of great value. How do I keep the estrogene in control? Because with me, I suspect things that go from typical to atyptical and am just trying to keep things in control.

    CHeers,

    Alicki

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  • alicki
    alicki Member Posts: 661
    edited February 2014

    Hello,

    Just a question Blessings. With your sort of breasts, how did they find IDC? Where you monitored very often?

    Thanks,

    Alicki

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