OK, calm down. Fraking out doesn't do you any good. Here's a good lesson to learn, early in your life: there's not much you can control, but you CAN control your own attitude to whatever happens. And I hope after reading this, you can do just that and choose to lower your stress level.

The chance of you having breast cancer, at age 17, is probably a bit less than 1 in a million. Read - it's highly unlikely. Not impossible, certainly, but almost certainly not the cause of this lump. Please read our message to teens for more information on this.

What IS likely is a lump, or series of lumps, that may come and go as your breasts continue to develop. It may be hormonal; many women find a lump or lumps in their breast, and within a week or so they disappear, only to reappear several weeks later. Lumps can appear and disappear in synch with your period.

If this lump doesn't disappear in a few weeks, it's still nothing to panic about. However, the rule of thumb is, any breast change (lumps, changes in appearance, etc.) that doesn't resolve on its own within a month should be checked out by a doctor. So if this lump is still with you a month from now - it hasn't gotten smaller, then come back; it's remained steady in size, or grown), then you'd want to check it out with a doctor, OK? S/he can do the tests to figure out if it's a cyst, a fibroadenoma, or something else. Hope this helps - PJH