The Health Diva

Breast awareness means getting into the habit of feeling and looking at your breasts from time-to-time so you know what’s normal for you.

Check yourself in a way that’s comfortable and convenient for you. You may find it convenient to look at your breasts when you are getting ready for a bath or shower, using a mirror to view your breasts from different angles.

You may find it helps if you have soapy hands when you feel your breasts, and want to do in the shower or bath. Or you may find it more comfortable to check your breasts when you’re lying down.

Checking frequently will allow you to become familiar with the usual feel and appearance of your breasts, you will then be more confident to notice if anything changes. Frequent checking also allows you to experience the cyclic changes your breast goes though each month, helping you not to get too anxious about lumpy breast around your period, if this is normal for you.

If you feel uncomfortable or anxious about checking your breasts, you may find it helpful to discuss your worries with a doctor or nurse.

Five-Point Breast Awareness

Follow the five-point breast awareness.

• Know what’s normal for you.
• Check both the look and feel of your breasts.
• Know what changes to look and feel for.
• Report any changes to your GP straight away.
• Attend routine breast screening if you are 50 or over.

Common Breast Changes

It’s important to remember that each woman’s breasts are different and that changes in how they look and feel are not always a cause for concern. They may be affected by the menstrual cycle, your age, pregnancy, the menopause and taking the contraceptive pill.

For example, if you have not been through the menopause it’s normal to have lumpy, tender breasts just before your period, especially near your armpits. This happens when the milk-producing tissue in your breasts becomes active. Your breasts may feel soft after your period.

After the menopause, your breasts should feel softer and less lumpy as activity in the milk-producing tissue of your breasts stops.

If you have had a hysterectomy, your breasts may still feel tender or lumpy each month, even though your periods have stopped. This is because your ovaries are still working and producing hormones. You may notice monthly changes in your breasts until the time when your periods would have stopped naturally.

Breast Changes to Seek Advice About

• A change in size or shape of your breasts (after puberty is complete), for example one breast becoming larger or lower
• Skin changes such as puckering or dimpling (skin looks like the texture of orange peel)
• A rash or crusting on the nipple or surrounding area
• Nipple changes, such as a change in the position of your nipple, or a newly inverted (turned-in) nipple
• Discharge from one or both nipples (unless you are breastfeeding and it’s milky discharge)
• Change in feeling, especially if it’s only in one breast
• Constant pain in part of the breast or armpit
• Swelling, thickening or a lump in your breast or armpit.

Breast Screening

The NHS Breast Screening Program offers mammography once every three years to women between the ages of 50 and 70 years.

Women with a family history of breast cancer may be offered regular mammograms from an earlier age. The usual recommendation is to start screening 10 years earlier than the age at which the youngest close relative with breast cancer was diagnosed.

Younger women are not routinely invited for screening, due to the density of breast tissue, mammograms for younger women are not recommended. However, breast screening is available for women over 40 at independent screening facilities.

About Mammography

Mammography is a low-dose X-ray of the breast tissue. It can often reveal lumps before you or a doctor can feel them, and can also show small deposits of calcium in the breast, which may be a sign of early cancer. As well as picking up breast cancer, mammography can show breast problems that are not cancer.

You should continue to be breast aware even if you have regular mammograms.