You feel a lump in the breast
A well-defined ball that rolls under the finger? It is undoubtedly an adenofibroma, the most common benign breast disease, which affects one in ten women, especially between the ages of 15 and 35. But it can also be another disease that is not serious: a cyst, a kind of pocket filled with fluid; a lipoma, a lump of fat under the skin; a lactating adenoma, which occurs during breastfeeding. Or, more seriously, a phyllodes tumor, a lump at risk of developing into cancer, but rare (1% of benign tumors).
• To know : in cancer, the lump is often hard, with irregular contours and not moving.
You feel pain in your breasts
A feeling of tension or burning in both breasts, which returns every month, without any other abnormality (like a lump): it is probably a hormonal mastodynia, a breast pain which appears cyclically a few days before the rules, due to the fluctuation of female hormones. If the pain affects only one breast, it may be a fibroadenoma or cyst, benign conditions.
• To know : breast cancer is rarely painful. But it can become so when it progresses and reaches nearby structures, such as the skin or the muscles located nearby.
Liquid is flowing from the nipple
A greenish fluid leak that occurs in a nipple is usually a cyst. If it is a discharge of milk occurring without breastfeeding, it is possible that it reflects pituitary gland disease (excessive secretion of prolactin, a hormone involved in lactation, etc.).
• To know : if it is cancer, the discharge is tinged with blood. However, it can also reflect a papilloma, an often benign tumor that forms in the milk ducts. Impossible to decide with the naked eye, it is necessary to consult.
The skin on your breast is red and swollen
Your breast is red, hard, swollen, hot and painful … It is undoubtedly an abscess, linked to the infection of a mammary duct by a bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus. Especially in case of fever and concomitant fatigue. It affects 1% of breastfeeding women.
• To know : inflammatory cancer can have the same symptoms. If these signs do not pass on antibiotics, consult quickly. Ditto in case of redness in the nipple with formation of crust. It may be a specific cancer, Paget’s disease of the breast, which mainly affects women over 40.
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