Understanding Your Breasts Normal breast tissue often feels nodular (lumpy) and varies in consistency from woman to woman. Even within each individual woman, the texture of breast tissue varies at different times in her menstrual cycle, and from time to time during her life.
Young women usually have dense breasts because their milk systems might be needed for feeding babies. Sometimes this thickness is felt as a lump or a mass of tissue. As women age, their milk systems shrink and are replaced by fat. By menopause, most women's breasts are completely soft.
Place a pillow under your right shoulder and your right arm behind your head. Using your left hand, move the pads of your fingers around your right breast gently covering the entire breast area and armpit. Use light, medium, and firm pressure. Squeeze the nipple; check for discharge and lumps.
Joshi. "On the other hand, normal breast tissue will feel like consistent fibrous mesh throughout your breast." Breast lumps are typically painless, but occasionally a woman may experience pain with a lump.
The takeaway
Many hard lumps in breast tissue are harmless. They can be caused by hormonal changes and might come and go on their own. These lumps are often easily moved with your fingers and might be tender to the touch. Lumps caused by breast cancer generally don't cause pain and can't be easily moved.
The lumps are milk ducts and tissues around them that have grown and widened to form cysts. These enlarge quickly in response to hormones released near your period. The lumps may be hard or rubbery and could feel like a single (large or small) lump. Fibrocystic changes can also cause breast tissue to thicken.
Shape and size of a breast lump
A tumor may feel more like a rock than a grape. A cancerous lump is usually hard, not soft or squishy. And it often has angular, irregular, asymmetrical edges, as opposed to being smooth, Dr. Comander says.
What typically differentiates a benign breast lump from a cancerous breast lump is movement. That is, a fluid-filled lump that rolls between the fingers is less likely to be cancerous than a hard lump in your breast that feels rooted in place. Another rule of thumb has to do with pain.
Breast changes to look out for
a change in the size, outline or shape of your breast. a change in the look or feel of the skin on your breast, such as puckering or dimpling, a rash or redness. a new lump, swelling, thickening or bumpy area in one breast or armpit that was not there before.
If you feel a lump, try not to panic. There is a good chance that it's noncancerous, as most breast lumps are benign. Breast tissue can be lumpy or dense, and that's normal. It's a good idea to do monthly breast exams to get to know your breast tissue and what is normal for you.
During a breast exam, a doctor or nurse practitioner will feel a woman's breasts to check any lumps and bumps and see if there are changes since the last exam. Doctors don't usually start doing breast exams until a woman is in her 20s.
Hormone changes during the menstrual cycle may lead to breast swelling. More estrogen is made early in the cycle and it peaks just before mid-cycle. This causes the breast ducts to grow in size. The progesterone level peaks near the 21st day (in a 28-day cycle).
Breasts can get smaller over time. As estrogen levels decrease, your breast tissue changes. The tissue in your breasts gets dehydrated and isn't as elastic as it used to be. This can lead to a loss of volume, and your breasts may shrink as much as a cup size.
There's nothing wrong with wearing a bra while you sleep if that's what you're comfortable with. Sleeping in a bra will not make a girl's breasts perkier or prevent them from getting saggy. And it will not stop breasts from growing or cause breast cancer.
Use light pressure to feel the tissue closest to the skin, medium pressure to feel a little deeper, and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs. Be sure to use each pressure level before moving on to the next spot. If you're not sure how hard to press, talk with your doctor or nurse.
The two most common causes of breast lumps are fibrocystic breast condition and cysts. Fibrocystic condition causes noncancerous changes in the breast that can make them lumpy, tender, and sore. Cysts are small fluid-filled sacs that can develop in the breast.
Signs of Breast Fat Necrosis
Breast fat necrosis typically feels like a round, firm lump to the touch. Some women experience tenderness, bruising, or dimpling in the area where the breast fat necrosis appears. Sometimes it can pull in the nipple.
Commonly developing from the mammary glands or ducts, such malignant lumps generally (about 50 percent) appear in the upper, outer quadrant of the breast, extending into the armpit, where tissue is thicker than elsewhere.
A breast cyst often feels like a grape or a water-filled balloon, but sometimes a breast cyst feels firm. Breast cysts don't require treatment unless a cyst is large and painful or uncomfortable. In that case, draining the fluid from a breast cyst can ease symptoms.
Bumps that are cancerous are typically large, hard, painless to the touch and appear spontaneously. The mass will grow in size steadily over the weeks and months. Cancerous lumps that can be felt from the outside of your body can appear in the breast, testicle, or neck, but also in the arms and legs.
Breast cancer lumps can vary in size. Typically, a lump has to be about one centimeter (about the size of a large lima bean) before a person can feel it; however, it depends on where the lump arises in the breast, how big the breast is, and how deep the lesion is.
The way that lump feels can provide plenty of information. Breast cancer tumors are rigid with firm, angular edges. They feel more like rocks than grapes. “A tumor won't be smooth like a cyst.
Normal breast tissue can sometimes feel lumpy, but at times, you may feel a firm bump, nodule or firm or hard feeling in your breast that seems a little different.
If the lumpiness can be felt throughout the breast and feels like your other breast, then it's probably normal breast tissue. Lumps that feel harder or different from the rest of the breast (or the other breast) or that feel like a change are a concern and should be checked.
Most fibrocystic breast changes are normal. However, make an appointment with your doctor if: You find a new or persistent breast lump or area of prominent thickening or firmness of the breast tissue. You have specific areas of continuous or worsening breast pain.