Breast Lumpiness

Breast Lumpiness

Common and Usually Harmless

Uh-oh. While smoothing body lotion over your breasts after a shower, you feel something odd--actually, some lumps--under the skin of your left breast. You're not sure what they are or even how they feel. Are they soft? Hard? Sometimes it feels like both. Whatever they are, you don't remember noticing them before.

You finish smoothing lotion over your arms and legs while your mind reels. Should you wait and see if the lumps go away after your period? Or should you make an appointment with your doctor to get them checked? Either way, you won't rest easy tonight.

For most women, lumpy breasts don't mean a thing, healthwise.

"Lumpy breasts are very common," says Kathleen Mayzel, M.D., director of the Faulkner Breast Centre and assistant clinical professor of surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. "Most premenopausal women have them. They feel like oatmeal looks--smooth areas interrupted by a series of lumps.

"They get more lumpy before your period and less lumpy afterward because of hormonal changes. As hormone levels go up, they get more lumps. As hormone levels go down, they get less."

The condition used to be called fibrocystic breast disease or benign breast disease, until doctors figured out that it wasn't a disease--it is completely normal, says Dr. Mayzel. Now they call it lumpy breasts, and it's a condition that tends to go away as you get older.

"Starting at the age of 35, fat begins to replace breast tissue," says Dr. Mayzel. "That makes the breast less lumpy."

Here's how she suggests you handle breast lumps.

Count. "You have to distinguish between a breast full of lumps and a breast with a lump," says Dr. Mayzel. "You don't have to do anything about a breast full of lumps. But a single lump in the breast is something that warrants further evaluation in the form of a mammogram, physician's examination and possible biopsy."

Be thorough. Don't skip any part of that prescription, she adds. Premenopausal women have such dense breasts that mammograms frequently do not detect a malignancy. That's why even if you have a lump and your mammogram is negative, make sure you follow through with a physician's exam and biopsy.

Stay calm. Don't spend time worrying about the lumps, says Dr. Mayzel. "When women feel a lump, they think that they've got cancer. But something like 80 percent of all lumps are not cancer."