What is the correct order for breast examination?

Women's breasts are very sensitive areas, and some diseases often occur in this area. For example, breast hyperplasia has a high incidence rate. The patient's breast will have lumps and pain will occur when pressed with the hands. If the disease develops seriously, swelling and pain will often occur. Therefore, in order to prevent these breast diseases, regular breast examinations must be performed. The correct order of breast examinations is as follows.

The correct sequence for breast examination:

1. Visual

Face the mirror with your hands hanging naturally, and carefully observe whether the two sides of the breasts are symmetrical in size, whether there are abnormal protrusions, epidermal depressions or bulges, desquamation, redness, swelling, wrinkles, etc., and pay attention to whether the nipples have secretions, deformation, erosion, or depression.

2. Look

Hold your hands together and place them behind your head, press your hands slightly forward, and pay attention to the shape and contour of your breasts in the mirror to see if there are any abnormalities as mentioned above. Then place your hands on your waist, lean your upper body forward, press your shoulders and elbows slightly forward, and observe whether there is any abnormality in your breasts in the mirror.

3. Touch

Raise your arm, put your right fingers together, and carefully examine your left breast. Press the breast lightly with the fingertips to feel whether there are any lumps. Start from the nipple and examine in a circular clockwise direction, gradually moving outwards, until the entire breast has been examined. In addition, pay special attention to the upper outer quarter of the breast and the armpits, and feel for any unusual subcutaneous lumps. At the same time, gently squeeze the nipples and watch for any discharge. After checking the left breast, check the right breast.

4. Lying down

Lie down flat and place a small pillow or bath towel behind your left shoulder. As your shoulder is raised, the center of gravity of the breast will move inward, making the breast flat and easier to examine. Put the fingers of your right hand together and regard the breast as a circle with the nipple as the center. Press in circles from the outside to the inside to check, then gently squeeze the nipple and pay attention to whether there is any secretion.

5. Infrared breast examination has no radiation, no damage, is fast and intuitive, and can directly show the course, distribution and diameter changes of breast blood vessels.

6. Mammography

It is recognized as an important means of early detection of breast cancer. When an unknown lump is found through infrared breast radiography, a molybdenum target X-ray examination should be performed. Unlike ordinary X-rays, breast mammography X-rays can accurately record the X-ray images left by different soft tissues, especially capturing tiny calcification foci that are of diagnostic significance for breast cancer. Clinical applications have confirmed that it can detect tumors smaller than 5mm and can detect breast cancer at least one year earlier than clinical manual examination. However, due to concerns about the risk of radiation causing cancer, there is still controversy over whether women under the age of 35 should undergo routine mammograms every year.

7. Color B-ultrasound examination

It is painless, non-destructive, will not be affected by dense glands, and can distinguish cystic and solid lesions more accurately. Compared with the first three, the biggest advantage of breast B-ultrasound examination is that it can observe dynamic breast images. However, B-ultrasound is less capable of detecting masses smaller than 5 mm.