What is Breast pain?

Breast pain

What is breast pain?

Breast pain is also called mastalgia. It means that you have pain rather than just tenderness in your breasts. The pain can make you uncomfortable and worried. But it's rarely a sign of a serious problem, such as breast cancer. Many women get breast pain.

It is normal for your breasts to feel tender at certain times, such as just before your period, in early pregnancy and when you are breastfeeding. This tenderness is caused by normal changes in your

hormones
Hormones are chemicals that are made in certain parts of the body. They travel through the bloodstream and have an effect on other parts of the body. For example, the female sex hormone estrogen is made in a woman's ovaries. Estrogen has many different effects on a woman's body. It makes the breasts grow at puberty and helps control periods. It is also needed to get pregnant.

hormones.

Source:
U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Medline Plus: Breast pain.
June 2007. Available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus (accessed on 22 January 2009).

¹ You probably won't worry about these normal changes.

But you may worry if your breasts are painful rather than just tender, and the pain is so bad that it interferes with your life.

There are two main types of breast pain:

Source:
Morrow M.
The evaluation of common breast problems.
American Family Physician. 2000; 61: 2371-2377.

Cyclical breast pain is linked to your periods (

menstrual cycle
A woman's periods are part of her menstrual cycle. This is the regular monthly pattern of events that causes an egg to be released from the ovaries so a woman can get pregnant and causes the bleeding that happens if she does not get pregnant.

menstrual cycle) and is worst just before your period. It is the most common type of breast pain.
Non-cyclical breast pain is not linked to your periods. It means that your breasts may feel painful some of the time, a lot of the time or even constantly.

You may be worried that the pain in your breasts is due to cancer. But pain on its own is not a common symptom of breast cancer. Less than 1 in 10 women with breast cancer have breast pain as their main symptom.

Source:
Smith RL, Pruthi S, Fitzpatrick LA.
Evaluation and management of breast pain.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2004; 79: 353-372.

³ A study of women who had a

mammogram
A mammogram is a special kind of X-ray picture of the breast.

mammogram (an

X-ray
X-rays are pictures taken of the inside of your body. They are done by passing very small amounts of radiation through your body and onto film. X-rays can also be used as a treatment, such as in radiation therapy for cancer.

X-ray of the breast) because they had breast pain found that they were no more likely to have cancer than those who didn't have breast pain.

Source:
Duijm LE, Guit GL, Hendriks JH, et al.
Value of breast imaging in women with painful breasts: observational follow-up study.
BMJ. 1998; 317: 1492-1495.

⁴

Most women with breast pain never know the cause of their pain. Because cyclical pain is linked with periods, some doctors think hormone imbalances may be to blame. (Hormone imbalances occur when your body produces too much or too little of one or more hormones.) But there is no evidence that hormone imbalances cause breast pain.

Source:
Morrow M.
The evaluation of common breast problems.
American Family Physician. 2000; 61: 2371-2377.

² Other doctors think that cyclical pain is caused by the water retention in your breasts before your period. But, again, there is no proof for this.

Source:
Preece PE, Richards AR, Owen GM, et al.
Mastalgia and total body water.
BMJ. 1975; 4: 498-500.

⁵

Breast pain that's not linked to periods (non-cyclical breast pain) can be caused by:

Source:
Smith RL, Pruthi S, Fitzpatrick LA.
Evaluation and management of breast pain.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2004; 79: 353-372.

Pregnancy
A breast infection that affects breastfeeding mothers (mastitis)
A knock or blow to your breast
A

cysts
A cyst is a sac or cavity that develops under your skin and is filled with fluid. Cysts are benign, which means that they are not cancerous.

cyst
A tumor
inflammation
If your skin or some other part of your body becomes red, swollen, hot or sore, we say it is inflamed. It means that your body is trying to protect you from germs, from something in your body tissues that can hurt you (like a thorn or sliver), or from things that cause allergies (allergens). Inflammation is part of the way the body heals an infection or injury.

Inflammation of a vein in your breast (thrombophlebitis)
A problem in the muscles, bones or joints in your chest, such as

arthritis
Arthritis is when your joints become inflamed, making them stiff and painful. There are different kinds of arthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common type. It happens when the cartilage at the end of your bones becomes damaged and then starts to grow abnormally. Rheumatoid arthritis happens because your immune system attacks the lining of your joints.

arthritis.

But usually there's no sign that anything's wrong and the cause remains a mystery.

Source:
Morrow M.
The evaluation of common breast problems.
American Family Physician. 2000; 61: 2371-2377.

Lots of researchers have looked at whether breast pain is caused by psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety. Some of them found that women with breast pain were more likely to be depressed or anxious. But it could be that the women in the study got depressed because they had breast pain, not that their depression caused their breast pain.

Source:
Smith RL, Pruthi S, Fitzpatrick LA.
Evaluation and management of breast pain.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2004; 79: 353-372.

What type of breast pain you get seems to change with age. You are most likely to get cyclical breast pain in your 20s and 30s. Non-cyclical breast pain tends to start later, usually in your 30s or 40s. But it can also start after

menopause
When a woman stops having periods, it is called menopause. This usually happens around the age of 50.

menopause.

Source:
Morrow M.
The evaluation of common breast problems.
American Family Physician. 2000; 61: 2371-2377.

Sources for the information on this page:

U.S. National Library of Medicine.Medline Plus: Breast pain.June 2007. Available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus (accessed on 22 January 2009).

Morrow M.The evaluation of common breast problems.American Family Physician. 2000; 61: 2371-2377.

Smith RL, Pruthi S, Fitzpatrick LA.Evaluation and management of breast pain.Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2004; 79: 353-372.

Duijm LE, Guit GL, Hendriks JH, et al.Value of breast imaging in women with painful breasts: observational follow-up study.BMJ. 1998; 317: 1492-1495.

Preece PE, Richards AR, Owen GM, et al.Mastalgia and total body water.BMJ. 1975; 4: 498-500.

This information was last updated on Feb 05, 2009

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment.
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