What is the reason for yellow discharge from the nipples?

Under normal circumstances, women's nipples will not secrete anything, except during lactation. Once you find that your nipples are discharging yellow fluid, you need to pay attention to it. It is usually a nipple disease. If you do not pay attention to it, it will cause more serious breast disease. When the nipples are discharging yellow fluid, it is best to go to the hospital for a detailed examination in time. After finding out the cause, treat it symptomatically. Do not blindly treat it without finding out the cause.

What is the reason for yellow discharge from the nipple?

Yellow fluid flowing from the nipple is clinically called nipple discharge. Nipple discharge has a variety of causes, depending on the nature of the fluid. Common nipple discharges include milky white discharge, light yellow discharge, grayish yellow discharge, bloody discharge, etc., and can be either thick or thin. For example, milky white thin liquid is mostly caused by breast secretion during menstrual period and is not a pathological change. Yellow watery discharge is generally caused by inflammation of the mammary ducts. Bloody nipple discharge is mostly caused by breast tumor lesions, such as intraductal papilloma, breast cancer, etc.

What causes nipple discharge?

Nipple discharge can be divided into physiological and pathological. In addition to the nipple discharge during lactation mentioned above, milk secretion within one year of cessation of breastfeeding and milk leakage caused by endocrine disorders during menopause are all physiological nipple discharge and are normal phenomena. Any other nipple discharge is a pathological phenomenon.

Before dealing with nipple discharge, it is important to determine whether it is true or false discharge. True discharge refers to the outflow of milk from the mammary ducts; while false discharge is usually caused by the shedding of nipple epidermal cells and accumulation in the nipple depression, which can also cause a small amount of fluid to seep out. The discharge will disappear after local treatment.

What diseases can cause nipple discharge?

Breast cancer: Many people associate nipple discharge with breast cancer, but in fact only about 10% of nipple discharge develops into breast cancer. The peak age for onset is 45-49 years old. When the discharge is bright red, you need to be alert to the possibility of cancer.

Breast cystic hyperplasia: This disease is often related to ovarian dysfunction. When the ratio of estrogen to progesterone in the body is unbalanced, it is easy to cause cystic hyperplasia. Therefore, it is easy to occur before menstruation and presents cyclical swelling and pain, and the discharge is mostly yellow-green.