Breast Pain

djmammo · July 2017

from the American College of Radiology

"The etiology of breast pain is not well understood and is probably multifactorial. Several possible causes have been studied, particularly for cyclical mastalgia, including a disturbance of hypothalamic control, abnormal hormonal response to stimuli, abnormal end-organ sensitivity, altered local hormone receptors, and disorders of lipid metabolism/fatty acid levels (which may result in exaggerated effects of normal levels of hormones). Hormonal medications, including hormone replacement therapy, oral contraceptives and infertility treatments, can be a cause of breast pain and tenderness. Other medications are also frequently implicated, specifically the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor form of antidepressants. Psychological factors may also be involved. Studies indicate no direct relationship between mastalgia and fibrocystic changes or total-body water retention. There is no convincing scientific evidence that eliminating or reducing caffeine intake has any significant effect on breast pain, despite widespread belief to the contrary. Breast pain can be associated with diffuse palpable nodularity, but there is no relationship between the extent of nodularity and the severity of pain [10]. Twenty-five percent of patients with noncyclical pain are reported to have duct ectasia with periductal inflammation, characterized by an exquisite continuous burning pain, usually behind the nipple, and a hypersensitive breast [14,18]. This entity is often associated with heavy smoking. Women with large breasts often have noncyclical pain simply related to the size of their breasts, which may also be associated with neck, shoulder, and back pain. "

Gena_gena · May 2018

Hi Djmammo,

I hope you can help me to clear things up. I had us done in April which showed small l breast mass needs mammo or mri. So I did mri with contrast in May which stated birads 4, large area of abnormal signal intensity & enhancement involving one 3rd of lateral part of left breast. Extremely dense bilateral breast tissues. Differential diagnoses include inflammation vs lobular carcinoma. Needs us guided biopsy. So I went to do my US guided biopsy the doctor stated that he didn’t see anything and told me to wait 6 months and repeat mri. But I can still feel the lump and hardened lateral side of my breast tissue with tenderness. It has been going on since January. If it was inflammation wouldn’t it go away by now. Do you think I should still wait 6 months to repeat the scan? The nodule that showed in Us & Mri is about 5 to 6 mm. I will be waiting for your reply. Many thanks in advance.

MarcysMomma · February 2019

How did things turn out? I’ve had pain for 7 months slowly getting worse and my MRI only showed tons of inflammation. They are recommending a biopsy but I’m not sure if they’d even know where to biopsy there was so much lit up

Anne123 · November 2019

Hi, I am new on here and wondering if anybody can shed some light onto my question.

Both my breasts are tender and sore to touch feel very bruised and heavy now I have started with this stinging pain in my breast which is really concerning me , I have an appointment for a mammogram this week which I am really nervous about I have read on here that a lot of women have the stinging feeling but I havent read what the outcome of there symptoms where.

Anybody else on here having the same problem??

WorryThePooh · November 2019

Anne123 as far as I know, stinging on its own, is not something to get too worried about. I did have stinging before I was diagnosed, but the difference is I found an obvious lump in my breast as well. Good luck with your mammogram, hope it's all normal for you.

Chippy621 · November 2019

DJMammo,

I’ve been having intermittent breast pain on the right side for a month and a half. It comes out of no where and is generally on the top part of my breast above the nipple. It is not a stabbing feeling, it’s like a dull strange bruise like feeling, but not even quite that. Very difficult to explain. Sometimes I have the pain in my underarm and sometimes I get a stabby itchy feeling in the breast as well. I had an ultrasound yesterday that revealed nothing. It was normal, including the axillary nodes. If I press on one area at the inner 9oclock area it feels bruise like. If I put pretty intense pressure on the breast, I can get white milky substance out, and have been able to do so since about July. Sometimes, the breast just has an overall strange sensation. None of it is cycle related as far as I can tell. I have no other symptoms, but I’m really concerned of IBC or IDC because I know they are often not seen on scan. Should I be pushing for more tests and answers? Or is this all likely nothing?

djmammo · November 2019

Chippy621

Can you post your most recent reports?

Chippy621 · November 2019

unfortunately no as I don’t have them yet.

Ataraneh24 · December 2019

Djmammo, thank you for posting this information on breast pain. I’ve had on and off pain for 3 months. It is not cyclical and it is strange- stabbing, aching, itching. It moves all over one breast. Ultrasound shows glandular tissue and a small cyst. Mammogram got a B score of 2 so they won’t do an mri. The nipple is also super sensitive. There is also a dent in that breast that’s been there for almost 10 years (I’m 32). The doctor says it’s not concerning because by now it would have been very advanced.Can this happen in one breast for the reasons you wrote about above? Like one is sensitive to the hormones and the other is not?

Breast Pain

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