Feeling of milk let-down with DCIS?

This is an interesting thread.  

The question is, do women who have the let down feeling not present with symptoms of bc.  It should be a survey on the on intake forms to see if it coincidental or not.

Wow, I too had this let down feeling for over four years before being diagnosed with DCIS in 2013. The feeling was very strong and it drove me crazy at times. I was so bugged by the sensation I went to see my gynecologist to ask her about it.  She was not sure why I would have this after not breastfeeding for 30 years so she took me off of my low dose of estrogen. I took such a tiny dose after I had had a hysterectomy in 2003.  Stopping the estrogen did help, and I was able to forget about it. I only experienced this let down feeling in my left breast; which was the side that had the cancer.

I found I did get the sensation back after having the BMX.  It comes and goes and I find it bothers me when my chest lymphedema is acting up and it goes away when I do the manual massage twice a day.  So thinking back the following things brought it on for me:

1. Breastfeeding

2. Estrogen replacement

3. DCIS

4. Lymphedema

I am wondering if each of these situations creates some swelling which then puts pressure on nerves which then creates the let down feeling.  I know I was more swollen when I took estrogen. I am also dealing with swelling from the lymphedema. I do not see the swelling, but I have it in the area where the node was removed and it gets quite achy.  When I breastfed, I was huge and was swollen in the breasts for sure. I don't know about the DCIS but maybe that also brings on some swelling in the area of the milk ducts. These are just my observations.

Sandra, I wonder if you are having some swelling around and/or behind the implant and it is irritating some of the sensory nerves. Maybe a visit with a qualified lymphedema PT specialist could give you some relief.  It sure does help me when I get that miserable feeling.

I found my way here to this thread after I googled "A feeling of milk let down in my left breast". I haven't breast fed in 20 years! I started having this sensation a few months ago, and didn't think much about it. Lately the sensation has gotten really uncomfortable and almost like a burning, and its starting to happen in the other breast. BC was the absolute furthest thing from my mind when I googled that and seeing BC in the search results gave me a wicked shock. I have given myself probably a hundred breast exams since reading this thread and found in my left breast a large lump, but not round, its long and narrow shaped and starts practically on my chest wall and gets larger as it disappears into the breast tissue. It is well defined from top to bottom and I'm just disgusted that I haven't felt it until now. There is no lump in the right breast. I have complete faith that everything happens for a reason, and I trust God to get me through this no matter what it is. Praying and hoping that its nothing.
My questions...SOoo many, but basically I need wisdom. What to ask, what to demand, what to expect...? I talked to my doctor on Friday and she told me that I am already scheduled for a mammogram and she said maybe a cat scan depending on what she feels. I have the breast exam tomorrow. So...I feel like everything is in fast forward and I'm a little nervous, well make that a lot nervous. Thank you in advance.

I have not been diagnosed, actually going to BS this afternoon, but one thing I keep talking about to friends is this totally weird feeling of milk let down that I have not felt in nearly 12 years! I keep saying it's like when my milk would fill up if my daughter made a single peep. I keep looking down expecting niagra falls! Nothing is engorged, nothing swollen, but it sure feels like it should be!

Whatever IS found, as I KNOW something is different with my breast, I have absolutely NO DOUBT that this feeling is part of it. I have not had it at all in so long. Even the last few months, when I was weaning, or in the near 5 years after breastfeeding when I was still leaking regularly, did I feel this. If I wasn't 100% sure I couldn't be pregnant I would have been in a mad panic about THAT! It's very different from regular feelings during my cycle.

I have ILC in my left breast and I'm so glad to have found this thread because I had the same feeling of let-down in my "healthy" right breast along with colostrum and I haven't breastfed since 2000. I mentioned it when I got my MRI but was just told not to squeeze it. I've been on the fence about whether to have a bilat or uni but the more you ladies share the more I am inclined to have a bilat.

Really interesting to find this. I was having a ductogram and told the doctor about this feeling and she said she had heard of this before. She was an older woman doctor. I did not feel like she discounted this information and when I told her I had a stinging sensation sometimes she also made note of that. She was not able to complete the ductogram and has scheduled me for a MRI with is scheduled for Tues morning. I really appreciate the sharing of information on the board. I was kind of being a bit lazy about following up with all this as I had been told that that discharge is not usually a sign of cancer and when she told me to please follow up I took it to heart. Thanks for sharing everyone.

This has been a fascinating thread to read. I've had this same feeling for years and have tied it to episodes of MS flareups. All this time, I thought it was related to the MS flareups somehow. Just recently, I was dx with DCIS with BMX last week, and I see others are experiencing the same thing with a DCIS dx. What could the connection between the two be? An increase in antibody or inflammatory activity in the breast region?

Maybe? Or nothing at all? I'm also wondering how many women without either health issue have this sensation. Maybe it's a remnant of having had active mammary glands at one point? Or maybe there's a hormonal fluctuation causing it?

But for so many to have it happening within months of a DCIS dx is interesting. I have to say that even after the BMX, I'm still having this sensation.

hi, i am new here. i have not gotten tested yet. but i was browsing to find out about symptonms while i wait for my appt with my ob. I ran into this topic and i found it really interesting. i have had the feeling of milk let down on and off for maybe a year. (my youngest son is 8). last week i started feeling a sharp knife stabbing pain in my left breast on the bottom part, this pain is only when i touch the area, it is like im pressing on very tender tissue. i think i feel a very small lump but im not sure, also i have had neck pain for the last month (dont know if that is related) just waiting for know. but i am a little worried that since i am 38 and i dont have an apparent lump that my dr is going to dismiss me. i im very intrigued about that milk letdown feeling i had no idea it could be associated with bc

I stopped nursing a year ago when my daughter was 18months due to pain in my left breast that felt like sand rubbing in my ducts. Then 4 moths ago I was helping my friend with her new born my left breast kept having the let down sensation. I thought it was due to just helping her care for her new born but has happened off and on since. I have pain in my left breast and armpit not lumps but 3 indentations my GP referred to as tethering. Had and ultrasound the radiologist ordered a mammogram and I'm now wait results. It's not until I saw this that it clues in that hey maybe they could be connected and that I should be listening to my body a little better when it talks to me

I too felt the same feeling! I was diagnosed in Aug 2015 with DCIS stage 0. My youngest child was 11! I hadn't nursed for years but I kept telling my husband something was wrong with that breast. I never felt a lump either and Doctors told me there is no way I could felt it. It was found during my routine mammogram.

I am a 53 year old, went through natural menopause at age 39. My mother was dx with breast cancer at age 48 and died from it at age 51. I have had breast biopsies in both breasts at 38 due to abnormal appearing microcalcifications on my very first mammogram. The result was benign, (fibrocystic breast changes) though they put a marker in my left breast. I have had a couple of category 3 mammograms since then.........both due to the left breast.

Now, my left breast has started spontaneously discharging clear fluid and I have the full feeling and that milk let-down feeling right before the discharge occurs..................I haven't been pregnant in 26 years. Needless to say, I'm calling my OB/GYN for an appointment

Carmen-

We understand how scary it can be when you experience unexplained health changes. You should make an appointment with your doctor and talk to them about what's going on, we hope it turns out to be nothing serious!

The Mods

Hi, this looks like an older post but maybe it's still kind of active? I am 42, have two kids, 5 and 8. Haven't breastfed in 4 years..The last few years I have gotten that let down feeling in my breasts .The last time I asked my ob/gyn she thought it could be hormones, or could just be that my nipples were irritated from my clothes and stimulating that reflex. I have "lumpy" breasts, and we did a mammogram and ultrasound about 16 months ago. I had another mammogram this past June. My question is, this seems to be getting worse, the let down feeling. I am going to call the doctor, but are there tests I should ask about besides a mammogram? Is it maybe peri-menopause? Would blood tests be able to tell me? It's not painful, just annoying..and it's happening several times a day. It's also scaring me that something is wrong. Just wondering if anyone has any advice as far as what I should ask the doctor, what tests I should ask for. thank you!

I had blocked ducts in my DCIS breast too, also lower flow as compared to the unaffected breast.