How to tell if you have a breast lump

Some female friends will find lumps when they touch their breasts, and they will be scared at this time. So how do we identify lumps in the breasts? What diseases usually cause breast lumps? Below, the editor will give you a detailed introduction to the issues that everyone is concerned about!

How to identify breast lumps

1. Personal inspection

Self-correction and self-examination should be carried out one week after menstruation. Raise your right hand to the back of your head, and use your left hand to check your left breast. Press the breast with your fingertips to feel if there are any lumps. Start from the nipple and check in a circular clockwise direction, slowly moving outward (about three or four circles) until all breasts have been checked. Use the same method to check the right breast.

2. Doctor’s palpation

On the day of the inspection, it is best to wear open-collar clothes to facilitate inspection. During the examination, when facing the doctor, whether you are in a standing position or sitting position, you must relax as much as possible so that the doctor can get accurate examination results. Doctors usually use the middle 3 fingers to touch, starting from the nipple and expanding in a spiral clockwise direction until the entire breast tissue.

3. Infrared sensor scanner

Infrared scanners are particularly suitable for screening women during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The test mainly uses the difference in infrared sensitivity between normal tissue and diseased tissue to display different grayscale images such as transmittance, brightness, etc. to diagnose breast diseases.

4.B-ultrasound examination

When a breast lump is suspected, an ultrasound examination is necessary. It is a basic screening test for breast lumps and can be used to identify the characteristics and location of the lumps. However, its ability to identify lumps with a diameter of less than 1 cm is relatively weak.

5. Mammography

The examination is performed by clamping the breast on the pad of the molybdenum capsule to fix the breast and obtain a clear image. Some tiny tumor buds that cannot be felt by hand can be detected. There may also be mild pain during the examination, which is caused by the pressure on the breasts caused by the straightening splint.

Different manifestations of breast lumps

1. Breast hyperplasia

It is common to find multiple lumps of different sizes and unclear boundaries in both breasts at the same time or successively, which can be treated. Breast fibroadenomas are mostly solitary, with clear borders, neat edges, smooth surface, and are movable.

2. Breast cysts

The swollen lobules that form when breast tissue deteriorates are smooth and movable. Intramammary papilloma is often accompanied by a ring-shaped, soft lump under or on the edge of the nipple, with a diameter of 0.3 to 1 cm, and most of them are accompanied by nipple discharge.

3. Enlargement of breast tube

The lump has uneven edges and an uneven surface. It is mostly located at the deepest part of the nipple and is usually less than 3 cm in size. When breast tuberculosis first occurs, it is often seen as an isolated mass, which gradually develops into one or more lumps with unclear boundaries and easy adhesion to the skin.

4. Breast cancer

Only a very small number of breast lumps are cancer. Breast cancer lumps are mostly single masses with irregular edges. Most of them are hard in color and often adhere to the skin.

Therefore, if you have breast lumps, you don’t need to worry too much, because it may be caused by other diseases. So please be sure to understand this matter, and you can do scientific examinations according to the methods introduced above. Only in this way can the results be reliable, so you don’t have to worry about the results yourself!