Breast health self-examination method

The core method of breast health self-examination can be summarized as "look, touch and squeeze three times". It is recommended to do it once a month 3-7 days after the end of menstruation. A single session of about 5 minutes is enough. Once you feel an abnormal lump, a local hardness, or a different change in the skin/nipples than usual, don't refer to the online diagnosis by yourself. Go to the breast department for examination as soon as possible - this is the most practical guideline that my best friend, a nurse who has been in the breast department of a tertiary hospital for 8 years, always repeats to everyone.

Last week I just accompanied a post-95s girl in the department for a check-up. She touched it while taking a shower and found a small hard lump on the outside of her right breast. It felt like pressing on a small unripe mango pit. It was not painful or itchy. I thought it was an ordinary hyperplasia. I thought I would wait until my aunt left to check. I took her to the hospital for an ultrasound. Fortunately, it was a type 3 benign nodule. Regular follow-up will be fine. There is no big problem.

In fact, it is very easy to get started, and there is no need to remember the complicated steps. Just take off your clothes and stand in front of the mirror before taking a shower. There is no need to assume any standard posture. Just do the two movements of raising your hands and placing your arms on your hips. Take a look at the shape of your breasts on both sides. No one's breasts are completely symmetrical in the first place. A difference of less than 1/3 is considered normal, so there is no need to worry. The key point is to see if there is a small area of ​​skin suddenly sunken in, or wrinkled like orange peel, whether the nipples suddenly become crooked, or if the nipples that were previously protruding suddenly sink in and cannot come out - these "sudden changes" are the signals that need to be alerted. Naturally inverted nipples and naturally large and small breasts are not a problem.

When touching, be sure not to hold it with your whole hand. My best friend said that half of the girls who came to the clinic because they were scared to register, mistook normal breast glands for lumps and cried in fear. Lie down on your back with a small pillow under your shoulders. If you want to check the left side, put your left hand behind your head and use the pads of the middle three fingers of your right hand to press gently in circles. Move slowly from the periphery of the nipple to the center. The entire chest, including the accessory breast near the armpit, should be touched. Normal breasts feel soft and have a uniform granular feel, like touching a cotton bag filled with half a bag of millet. If you feel a single, hard lump that cannot be moved or is not painful when pressed, be careful and wait until you feel it again the next day. If it is still there, go to the hospital. By the way, if you touch it just a week before your aunt comes, and the whole breast is swollen and painful, and there are lumps and lumps, it is most likely breast hyperplasia. Wait for 3 days after your aunt is gone and then touch it. Most of them will disappear, so don’t scare yourself.

Finally, just squeeze the nipple gently, don't use force. You can squeeze out tissue fluid when you squeeze a pimple. A little water squeezed out by force is not abnormal at all. If there is overflow with just the slightest touch, especially if it is bloody or brown, then you need to go for a checkup.

Speaking of which, there are actually different views in the industry on whether ordinary healthy women should undergo standardized self-examination every month. One group of foreign guidelines believes that ordinary women have no medical experience and tend to mistake normal tissue for lesions, which only increases unnecessary anxiety. They only need to touch it a few times when bathing to familiarize themselves with their normal touch, and there is no need to spend time to go through the process. The other group believes that for high-risk groups with a family history of breast cancer, 4a or above nodules in previous tests, or long-term use of estrogen drugs, monthly self-examination can help detect abnormalities as early as possible and is extremely cost-effective. Both statements are supported by clinical data, and you can choose according to your own situation. You don’t have to stick to the so-called “standard process”.

To be honest, the biggest significance of self-examination is never to allow you to diagnose yourself. After all, even experienced doctors cannot judge benign or malignant just by touch. Its biggest role is to help you become familiar with your body. Whenever there are changes that are different from usual, you can detect them immediately and don't turn small problems into big troubles. My best friend said that she has met too many girls who either find some small problem and are so scared that they can't sleep all night long, or find a hard lump and carry it for more than half a year without checking it, and finally postpone it until they need surgery, which is completely unnecessary. 90% of breast nodules are benign. Seeing a doctor in time is better than anything else if you find a problem.

Oh, by the way, if you are over 40 years old, even if no problems are found during self-examination, it is best to have a breast ultrasound or mammography once a year. The sensitivity of the instrument is much higher than that of self-examination.