Breast pain is very common and experienced by seventy percent of women at some time in their life. Breast pain is rarely the single sign of breast cancer—you can experience breast pain for a variety of reasons unrelated to breast cancer, including:
- Hormonal changes such as menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, and puberty
- Breasts become full with milk following childbirth
- Breastfeeding
- Breast infection
- Trauma or injury to the breast or underlying chest area
- Large breast size
- Fibrocystic breast changes
- Stress
In addition, certain medications, including those that contain hormones as well as some antidepressants, can cause breast pain.
If breast pain lasts more than two weeks
Breast pain is not commonly a breast cancer symptom, but it is something you should take seriously. If your breast pain lasts for two weeks or more and is not related to a time during your menstrual cycle, or becomes increasingly worse, contact your doctor.
Diagnosis of breast pain
- One of our breast care experts will perform a clinical breast exam to manually check your breasts.
- Your doctor may also use a digital mammogram and/or breast ultrasound to better understand the appearance of the inside of your breast.
Treatment of breast pain
Depending on the findings of the above tests, your doctor will discuss different treatment options with you.
