How should mastitis be examined?

Breasts are very important to women. Breasts are not only the most obvious female characteristics of women, but also the best display of female beauty. But the breast is also the organ with the greatest potential threat in the female body. Women's breasts are prone to disease, especially during lactation. They are prone to mastitis and breast blockage. Breast hyperplasia is also a common disease among women. So how should you check if you suspect you have mastitis?

At the beginning of mastitis, the breasts will become swollen and painful, the lumps will be tender, the surface will be red and swollen, and there will be fever. If mastitis continues to develop, the symptoms will worsen and the breasts will have throbbing pain. In severe cases, there is high fever, chills, obvious breast swelling and pain, local skin redness and swelling, nodules and tenderness, and enlarged and tender lymph nodes under the affected side.

Starting from the sitting position, any inversion of the nipple, indentation of the skin, or unusual structural shape are clues to cancer deep in the breast. These signs will appear if the patient claps her hands above her head to contract her pectoral muscles. When the woman is in a sitting position, it is easier to check the supraclavicular, infraclavicular, and axillary lymph nodes. Finally, palpation should be performed while sitting, using the fingers together to touch the area under the nipple.

Lie on your back to palpate a wider area. Place a pillow under the ipsilateral breast and raise the ipsilateral hand over the head so that the breast is evenly spread on the chest wall so that the fingers can easily touch the deeper parts. Use the palm of the index finger, middle finger, and ring finger instead of the fingertips for palpation. The palpation should be in a circular motion, rotating laterally from the nipple to the outside. It is especially important to examine the breast that extends into the armpit.

Breast examination should first observe the development of the mammary gland, whether the breasts on both sides are symmetrical, whether they are similar in size, whether the nipples on both sides are at the same level, whether the nipples are retracted and sunken; whether the nipples and areolas are eroded, the color of the breast skin, whether there is edema and orange peel-like changes, whether there are inflammatory manifestations such as redness and swelling, whether the superficial veins in the mammary gland area are dilated, etc.

The article introduces the examination method for mastitis, and you can determine whether you have mastitis through self-examination. However, if you are not very proficient in this method, then when you feel discomfort in your breasts, you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment to avoid missing the best treatment time. In daily care, women can also massage their breasts more often to stimulate blood circulation in the breasts.