Breast pain

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Female Breast

Breast pain

Overview

Treatment

Breast pain

Definition:

Breast pain involves any discomfort or pain in the breast, such as premenstrual tenderness.
Alternative Names:
Pain - breast; Mastalgia; Mastodynia; Breast tenderness
Considerations:

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There are many possible causes for breast pain. For example, hormonal fluctuations related to menstruation or pregnancy are often responsible for breast tenderness. Some degree of swelling and tenderness just before your period is normal. The question is how tolerable (or intolerable) the discomfort is to you.

Although many women with pain in one or both breasts understandably fear breast cancer, breast pain is NOT a common symptom of cancer.

Boys and men have breast tissue. If a male has breast tissue that is visible, this is called gynecomastia. As a normal part of development, adolescent boys can have some breast swelling and tenderness. Like breast tenderness in women, this is due to hormonal changes.

Common Causes:

Some degree of breast tenderness is normal, caused by hormonal fluctuations from:

Menstruation
Pregnancy -- tends to be more common during the first trimester and pregnancy at a young age
Puberty -- in both girls and boys
Breast feeding
Approach of menopause (once your menstrual periods have stopped completely, breast tenderness often goes away unless you are taking hormone replacement therapy)

Soon after childbirth, your breasts may become engorged with milk. This can be very painful and is usually accompanied by swelling. If you also have an area of redness, call your health care provider.

Other common causes of breast pain include:

Fibrocystic breast changes
Mastitis -- a blocked and infected milk duct that may have some redness, usually associated with breastfeeding
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
Alcoholism with liver damage
Injury

Fibrocystic breast tissue is a common condition. It involves breast lumps and bumps throughout the breast tissue that tend to be more tender just before your menstrual period.

Certain medications may also cause breast pain, including digitalis preparations, aldomet, aldactone and other potassium-sparing diuretics, anadrol, and chlorpromazine.

Shingles can lead to pain felt in the breast if the painful blistering rash appears on the skin over one of your breasts.

References:

Marchant DJ. Benign breast disease. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2002; 29(1): 1-20.

Dickerson LM. Premenstrual syndrome. Am Fam Physician. 2003; 67(8): 1743-1752.

Millet AV. Clinical management of breast pain: a review. Obstet Gynecol Surv. 2002; 57(7): 451-461.