Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 2/8/2012

Question
Hi there, I'm 20 years old and for the past year or so I have noticed that I have VERY lumpy breasts. The lumps are small,soft and are ALL OVER my breasts. Also they are very tender to touch and very painful if accidentally bumped. These lumps and pains occur all the time and do not change when I am due or on my period. At first I didn't worry as I just thought this was common as I am Young and my breasts are still growing but after speaking to several people I am Starting to become more worried as this is not the case. The pain is always in my breast and often spreads into my underarm.  Is this normal? Should I be worried?

Thankyou

Answer
This is not uncommon. You probably have quite dense breast tissues and they can react this way sometimes. There is no good treatment for your problem unfortunately. But it also makes future breast cancer check ups with mammography more difficult in your case because it is harder to evaluate dense breast tissues with mammography. So in these cases mammography SHOULD ALWAYS be complemented with ultrasound breast scans and MRI breast scans!



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