Breast itching is a sign of serious illness

Some patients may not have any clear lumps in their breasts, but only itching and rashes in the nipples and areolas, which look like eczema. In fact, this may also be a special type of cancer, Paget's disease, which is nipple eczema-like breast cancer. So, don't ignore small changes.

Physiological changes:

1. After a woman becomes pregnant, starting from the early stages of pregnancy, the color of her nipples and areolas will deepen, gradually changing from light red to dark brown. This change is mainly due to the increase in estrogen and progesterone in the body after pregnancy, and is a normal physiological change.

2. For some women (mostly between 30 and 45 years old), even when they are not pregnant, the color of their nipples and areolas gradually deepens from pink-brown to dark brown. A breast examination may not reveal any lesions, but this color change indicates that the woman has a "transient" increase in estrogen in her body. Perhaps after a period of time, due to self-regulation, the estrogen level returns to normal, and the color of the nipples and areola also returns to normal. This is still a normal physiological change.

Pathological changes:

1. The color of the nipples and areolas deepens, accompanied by severe itching around the nipples and areolas. During breast examination, hyperplastic lesions or cystic hyperplastic lesions may be found in both or one breast. The darkening of the color of the nipple and areola indicates an increase in the level of estrogen in the body. It is consistent with the law of disease occurrence for the breast, which is a target organ.

2. The color of the nipple and areola simply deepens to dark brown or black brown. Even small nodules may be found around the areola glands, forming protrusions. At this time, there is no lesion when examining the breasts. One should consider whether the patient has a more serious liver disease. This is because liver disease causes decreased liver function, and estrogen cannot be normally broken down in the liver, causing the nipples and areolas to darken in color, which is exactly the same as the "spider nevi" and "cinnabar palms" that appear in men with severe liver disease.

3. When a woman's ovaries suffer from certain benign tumors, the amount of estrogen secreted by the ovaries increases, which can cause the color of the nipples and areola to darken, and many small nodules may appear around the areola glands. Such patients should see a gynecologist as soon as possible to find out the cause and receive timely treatment.

What does itchy nipples and areolas mean?

Of course, the eczema-like changes in the nipple and areola are not necessarily cancer; some of them are simply eczema.

So, what kind of situations should cause special vigilance? Generally speaking, if eczematous changes occur in the nipple and areola on one side and do not heal for a long time, there is a high possibility of eczematous cancer. The main symptoms are initial itching or mild burning pain of the nipple, followed by redness of the skin of the nipple and areola, mild erosion, and yellow-brown or gray scaly crusts often attached to the surface. The skin in the affected area is rough, thickened and hard, with a clear boundary with the surrounding area. Later, the nipple on the affected side may become sunken or eroded, or a hard lump may be felt in the breast.

In the early stages of eczematous breast cancer, when the lesions are limited to the nipple and areola and no lump has been felt in the breast, simple resection of the affected breast can produce good results. If a lump has already formed in the breast, the prognosis is poor and radical mastectomy is necessary. Therefore, timely diagnosis and treatment when the lesions are still in the early stages of eczematous changes on the nipple and areola is the key to achieving a better prognosis. In clinical practice, a biopsy should be considered for skin lesions of the nipple and areola that have not responded to treatment for more than 2 weeks to confirm the diagnosis.