What causes breast pain after menstruation?

After my period, I sometimes feel a little pain in my breasts. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to it, thinking it was just an occasional thing. But after a few months, I found that my breasts seemed to hurt a little after every period, but it wasn’t too serious. I wondered if it was caused by some gynecological disease. I was a little worried. So what is the reason for breast pain after menstruation?

Before, during or after menstruation, women may experience unbearable nipple itching or pain that makes them unable to wear clothes, which gradually improves after the period ends. This is called "menstrual nipple itching and pain." The nipple belongs to the liver, so this disease is mainly attributed to the liver. The main causes of this disease are qi stagnation, blood stasis and qi and blood deficiency.

(1) Qi stagnation and blood stasis: emotional damage, liver depression and qi stagnation, poor blood circulation, and blood stasis in the nipples. During menstruation, qi and blood are exuberant, aggravating blood stasis and thus causing this disease.

(2) Qi and blood deficiency: After menstruation, the yin blood flows downward, and the qi is damaged along with the blood. This leads to liver blood deficiency, spleen deficiency, and the nipples being deprived of qi and blood nourishment, or dry blood generating wind, causing itching and pain.

Breast cancer: It is common in women aged 20 to 40 and has a slow course. In the early stage, there is one or several nodules in the breast, which are painless or tender, have unclear boundaries with surrounding tissues, are often adhered to the skin, and the axillary lymph nodes on the same side may be enlarged. Clinically, there is no fever. After the pus mass softens, it forms a cold abscess; it can penetrate the skin to form a fistula or sinus tract, and discharge thin pus with cheesy debris. In a few patients, the lumps become hard lumps through fibrosis, which changes the shape of the breast and causes the nipple to retract, making it difficult to distinguish from breast cancer.

Breast swelling after menstruation may be due to insufficient Qi and blood. You do not pay attention to maintenance in normal times. Don’t think that you can skip maintenance because you are young. Just because you are young, you should take better care of yourself, improve your physical fitness, and replenish Qi and blood in time. Another possibility is breast cancer. This situation is often accompanied by symptoms such as lumps in the breast, and you should go to the hospital for timely diagnosis.