My breasts have been hurting for more than ten days. What's going on?

Breast problems are one of the threats to modern women's health, because breast diseases have a higher probability of becoming cancerous, causing harm to women's life safety. Breast problems usually start with pain, which is not very obvious at first. Later, as time goes by, the pain in the breast gradually intensifies, eventually reaching a level that women can no longer bear. Let's take a look at what's going on if your breasts hurt for more than ten days?

The sensation of the breast is controlled by the intercostal nerves and the 3rd and 4th cervical nerves. Once these nerves are invaded, it will cause pain, so breast pain is not a specific symptom of a certain disease. Early breast cancer rarely causes pain unless it is locally advanced or inflammatory breast cancer. Breast pain often comes from benign, non-tumorous breast diseases. It can be said that breast pain is not proportional to the benign or malignant nature of breast disease and the severity of the disease. It should be noted that breast lumps that are not accompanied by breast pain should be treated with greater caution.

There are many diseases that cause breast pain, the most common of which are acute mastitis, persistent pain, obvious tenderness, and pulsating pain after abscess formation. Breast hyperplasia, bilateral breast pain is mostly severe on one side, often cyclical, with breast swelling and pain before menstruation, and the pain relieves and disappears on its own after menstruation. In some patients, the pain may radiate to the armpits or shoulders and back. Plasma cell mastitis (also known as mammary duct ectasia syndrome) is often accompanied by local itching and burning pain. Nipple cracks and severe nipple pain during breastfeeding. A small number of breast cancers may cause mild dull pain or pain, and the attacks are often irregular; locally advanced breast cancer tumors rupture and necrotize to form ulcers, which may cause persistent burning pain; inflammatory breast cancer causes the breast skin to become red, swollen, hot, painful, and accompanied by tenderness.

When identifying breast pain, the breast clinic doctor will ask about the medical history, understand whether there are any triggers, the onset and duration, the characteristics of the pain, whether treatment has been given and what the results were, and then conduct a physical examination. In differential diagnosis, imaging examinations are sometimes needed, including mammography (breast mammography), color Doppler ultrasound, and breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). If breast pain is accompanied by nipple discharge, some examination methods for nipple discharge can also be carried out, such as breast ductoscopy, breast duct angiography, nipple discharge cytology examination, etc.