Breast pain after menstruation

All women will experience a physiological process after entering puberty, namely menstruation. Menstruation is a sign of female sexual maturity. Women begin to secrete sex hormones. At this time, women can also release mature eggs, which means they have the ability to reproduce. During menstruation, women may experience general fatigue, abdominal pain, breast pain, etc. Is it normal for women to experience breast pain after menstruation?

Generally speaking, if there is sudden, persistent, and severe pain in the breast accompanied by obvious tenderness, it is considered to be various acute infectious diseases of the breast; if there is local throbbing pain, it may be that the local area has become suppurative.

If breast pain is paroxysmal, and often begins before menstruation or worsens before menstruation, and is relieved or disappears after menstruation, and the pain is distending or stabbing, and sometimes involves the armpit or shoulder and back on the same side, and there is mild to moderate tenderness locally, then it is considered to be a proliferative lesion.

If the breast pain is only mild dull pain or aching pain, the onset has no obvious regularity, and is only sporadic or paroxysmal, and some are persistent, it is often ignored because the pain is not obvious. It should be noted that such breast pain may also be a signal of early breast malignant disease and should be given sufficient attention.

Sometimes, there is no obvious pain in the breast, but only pain in one armpit or shoulder and back, which may also be a malignant lesion. These subtle changes should not be easily ignored.

In addition, some women also experience breast pain when their breasts are swollen. This is a physiological condition and should be distinguished from breast pain caused by disease. In short, if you experience breast pain, don't panic, but also don't be careless and think that breast pain is no big deal and it will go away if you bear it. Some women are shy and find breast pain difficult to talk about and are embarrassed to see a doctor. These are all incorrect perceptions.

Breast changes, even mild breast pain, should be taken seriously, because breast pain may be a symptom of many breast diseases or even a sign of breast malignancy.

1. Breast pain during adolescence: The earliest breast pain in girls usually occurs between the ages of 9 and 13. At this time, girls' breasts begin to develop, with the nipples first bulging and a slight feeling of pain. After menarche, it will disappear on its own as the breasts mature during puberty.

2. Premenstrual breast pain: Many women experience fullness, hardness, and tenderness in the breasts during menstruation. In severe cases, the breasts may become swollen and painful even with a slight vibration or collision, and the original granules or nodules may become more obvious. This is caused by increased estrogen levels in the body before menstruation, breast hyperplasia, and edema of the breast interstitial tissue. After the menstrual period, the above changes disappear.

3. Breast tenderness during pregnancy: Some women experience breast tenderness around 40 days of pregnancy due to changes in estrogen levels in the body, which causes breast hyperplasia and breast enlargement. In severe cases, the pain may last throughout the pregnancy and no treatment is required.

4. Postpartum breast tenderness: Breast tenderness, lumps and pain may often occur 3 to 7 days after delivery. This is mainly caused by breast lymph retention, venous congestion, interstitial edema and obstruction of mammary ducts. Prevention and treatment methods: Mothers should breastfeed as soon as possible; if there are nodules, apply hot compresses and massage the nodules before breastfeeding; you can also use a breast pump to draw out milk to promote patency of the mammary ducts.

5. Breast pain after artificial abortion: After artificial abortion, some women complain of breast pain and can feel a lump. This is due to the sudden interruption of pregnancy; the hormone level in the body drops sharply, causing the newly developed mammary gland to suddenly stop growing, resulting in breast lumps and breast pain.

6. Breast pain after sexual intercourse: This is related to the physiological changes in the breasts during sexual intercourse. People with low libido or an disharmonious sex life cannot achieve sexual satisfaction, so the congestion and swelling of the breasts are not easy to subside, or they subside incompletely. Continuous congestion will cause breast pain.

7. Breast cancer: It is common in women aged 20 to 40 and has a slow course of disease. In the early stage, there is one or several nodules in the breast, which are painless or tender, have unclear boundaries with surrounding tissues, are often adhered to the skin, and the axillary lymph nodes on the same side may be enlarged. Clinically, there is no fever. After the pus mass softens, it forms a cold abscess; it can penetrate the skin to form a fistula or sinus tract, and discharge thin pus with cheesy debris. In a few patients, the lumps become hard lumps through fibrosis, which changes the shape of the breast and causes the nipple to retract, making it difficult to distinguish from breast cancer.

8. During examination, diffuse thickening of the breasts on both sides may be found, which is in the form of flaky, granular or nodules. The boundary between the thickened area and the surrounding breast tissue is not obvious. Sometimes the two sides may be asymmetrical. The above findings are often more obvious before menstruation and soften or disappear after menstruation. When cysts are formed, multiple cystic nodules of varying sizes can be felt in the breast.

There is some controversy about the relationship between lobular hyperplasia of the breast and breast cancer, but most scholars believe that more than 90% of lobular hyperplasia is a physiological change caused by endocrine imbalance, and its essence is neither inflammation nor tumor, let alone precancerous lesions. However, there is a phenomenon that deserves attention. That is, some breast cancers are sometimes misdiagnosed as lobular hyperplasia, which is not taken seriously and not thoroughly investigated, resulting in the delay of the good opportunity for early treatment.