Breast pain is common among women. In fact, Dr Duru Shah, MD and Senior Medical Advisory Board (MAB) member for Gynaecology at Metropolis, says that an online study of 1700 women found that almost 51.5% percent experienced breast pain at some stage of their lives. In an interaction with Only My Health, he said, “Breast pain can be a hindrance to any woman’s daily activities as noted in a study of 1171 healthy premenopausal women, wherein 11% of participants reported moderate-to-severe pain.” “The pain was so intense that it interfered with sexual activity and physical activity in almost 50% of women who had breast pain,” the doctor added.
We asked the doctor about the various causes of breast pain and how benign breast pain is different from cancerous ones.
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Understanding The Difference Between Benign And Malignant Breast Pain
“Benign breast conditions include an array of conditions like benign breast pain, breast lumps, infections and any skin changes,” said Dr Shah, adding that breast pain can be of three types:
Cyclical: This type of breast pain occurs due to hormonal fluctuations in the menstrual cycle. It usually takes place in both breasts and occurs approximately 8-10 days prior to menstruation.
Non-cyclical: Non-cyclical breast pain usually occurs in one breast and has no specific pattern. The possible reasons for this pain could be, smoking, high-fat diet or even due to hormonal replacement therapy or in women with large-sized breasts. Mastitis is another painful condition, usually seen in lactating women.
Extramammary: Some women feel the pain in their breasts, but the pain could be due to certain nerve disorders. For example, if a woman has a problem in the spine behind her neck, then it could lead to pain in the outer part of her breast, shoulder and upper back, all on the same side as the breast.
Comparing benign and cancerous breast pain, Dr Shah said, “Women experiencing persistent or recurrent breast pain should be investigated in detail.”
“The presence of breast cancer in a patient who only presents with breast pain is very low (0.5-3.3%). If cancer is present, breast pain is typically associated with a lump in the breast, skin changes like the surface of an orange peel, blood-stained nipple discharge or a retracted nipple,” he added.
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In addition, the doctor discusses inflammatory breast cancer, a rare type of cancer, wherein women have extremely painful/swollen breasts with discoloration of the skin and enlarged lymph nodes.
“Meet a doctor as soon as you notice any signs as it can be confused with a simple breast infection. Relief with antibiotics rules out an infection and everything goes back to normal. But if there is a lurking cancer, it may not regress and it is a warning sign to see the gynaecologist,” he advised.