Breast lumps on physical examination

Compared with men, women's physical examinations have one more item, which is breast examination. In fact, before the breast examination, women can do self-examination, that is, check for breast hyperplasia and breast cancer. These methods can be performed by themselves. Female friends should also learn to distinguish the texture of breast lumps. Not all lumps are dangerous. Many breast lumps are benign tumors and the possibility of malignant transformation is very small. This article introduces the method of breast self-examination and several types of breast lumps. Let’s take a look.

1. Breast self-examination to distinguish breast hyperplasia and breast cancer

When doing breast self-examination, stretch out your palm, put your four fingers together, and use the tip of the most sensitive index finger, middle finger, and ring finger to touch the upper outer, lower outer, lower inner, and upper inner areas of the breast in order, and finally the nipple and areola area in the middle of the breast. During the examination, do not pinch the breast tissue with your fingers, otherwise you will mistake the pinched breast tissue for a lump. The most serious breast disease is breast cancer. Compared with general lumps, it has irregular shape, unclear boundaries, hard texture, fast growth rate and is not easy to be pushed. Also, there are changes on the skin, such as pitting, color changes, etc.

5 situations in which breast lumps are normal

1. Dense breasts

Breasts can be divided into three types: dense, fatty, and mixed. The mammary gland occupies most of the breast, which is the dense breast type; the fat occupies most of the breast, which is the fatty type; the gland and fat are between the first two types, which is the intermediate mixed type.

2. Breast fibroadenoma

A smooth, movable lump in the breast of a young woman may be a fibroadenoma. Breast fibroadenoma is the most common benign breast tumor, mostly occurring in young women between 18 and 25 years old, and is mostly solitary.

3. Breast lipoma

If you feel a movable lump on the surface of the breast with clear boundaries and almost no pain, it may be a breast lipoma. It is more common in obese middle-aged women, grows slowly, and rarely becomes malignant.

4. Lobular hyperplasia of the breast

Before menstruation, breast tenderness and the feeling of a lump with unclear boundaries may be due to lobular hyperplasia of the breast. The lumps caused by lobular hyperplasia of the breast are mostly granular nodules, some as small as sesame seeds, some as large as lumps, but with no obvious boundaries and no adhesions to the skin and deep tissues.

5. Cystic hyperplasia of the breast

Cyclic breast tenderness, multiple, nodular lumps, and sometimes nipple discharge may be symptoms of cystic breast hyperplasia. Simple cystic hyperplasia rarely becomes malignant, but if it is accompanied by atypical epithelial hyperplasia, the possibility of malignant transformation is greater.