Breasts - more trouble than they're worth?

quick blog today because I am behind in my studies and desperately want to move on from diseased ovaries and breasts to lymphomas and leukemias.

Apparently, women's breasts get all kinds of lumps in them all the time and it's not a big deal. For example, there is something called fibrocystic change that happens in breasts between the ages of 25 and 50. These lumps are sensitive to estrogen and so can fluctuate in size depending on your menstrual cycle, and be painful. No fun. They aren't any kind of precursor to cancer, EXCEPT if you get something called hyperplasia, which means multiplication of cells - this is a cancer buzzword. You wouldn't know if you have hyperplasia unless a biopsy is done and the tissue gets checked out under the microscope.

Maybe I should use this post to talk about a general cancer vs. non-cancer concept. The following is of course wide open to exceptions, qualifications. But here's the deal.

In general.....

If you have a lump in your breast, lymph nodes, etc....and it hurts, it's NOT cancer. Yeah, counterintuitive, right? We think of cancer as this vicious thing (which it is) that will wreck havoc (which it does), and with all that destruction, shouldn't it hurt? Well it does eventually, possibly in the end stages. But painful lymph nodes are due to infections. Painful breast lumps are just part of being a woman - yes, another unbelievable perk.

So if you are feeling around in your neck, jaw, and feel a swollen mass, like a lymph node, you probably have some sort of infection. If you feel one in your breast, you probably bumped it, or you're premenstrual. But if that mass is rock solid and doesn't hurt, then time to see the doctor.

I should probably put a disclaimer in this blog that this information is not meant to diagnose or treat any diseases. I am not held responsible for anything you do as a result of acquiring this info from me.

So there it is.

Mahalo.