What are the early symptoms of female mastitis?

Mastitis is a common breast disease among women. Many women have this disease and there are many causes of this disease. So what are the early symptoms of female mastitis?

1. Breast lumps: Breast lumps are the main symptom of breast tumors. Breast lumps are also seen in breast hyperplasia, breast tuberculosis, etc.

2. Localized thickening of the breast: When touching the breast, it is found that the tissue is slightly thicker than the surrounding area. The boundary is unclear and it is difficult to measure its exact size. It is generally diagnosed as "hyperplasia" clinically. This situation is mostly physiological in women who have not yet had menopause, especially when there are some changes in the size of the menstrual cycle.

However, if the thickened tissue persists for a long time, is unrelated to changes in the menstrual cycle, or becomes increasingly thicker and larger in area, especially when it occurs in postmenopausal women, it must be taken seriously because about 8% of such lesions are cancer.

3. Breast pain: Severe breast pain accompanied by tenderness is often a manifestation of breast inflammation, which is seen in acute mastitis and breast abscess. For example, local breast pain is often related to the menstrual cycle and is generally more common in simple and cystic hyperplasia of the breast.

4. Nipple discharge: When women are not breastfeeding, nipple discharge is mostly pathological. The most common cause is intraductal papilloma, followed by cystic hyperplasia of the breast and duct ectasia. About 15% of patients have breast cancer. Doctors at Shanghai True Love Women's Hospital remind us to pay special attention to bloody discharge accompanied by breast lumps. Some drugs can also cause bilateral nipple discharge, such as estrogen, birth control pills, etc.