Breast pain

Diagnosis

To diagnose breast pain, a healthcare professional first reviews your medical history and symptoms. Tests to assess breast pain may include:

• Breast exam. Your healthcare professional will likely check for changes in your breasts. This involves examining your breasts and the lymph nodes in your lower neck and underarms.
  
  Your healthcare professional also will likely listen to your heart and lungs and check your chest and belly to see whether the pain could be caused by another condition.
  
  If your medical history and physical exam don't show anything out of the ordinary, you may not need more tests.
• Ultrasound. An ultrasound exam uses sound waves to make images of the breasts. An ultrasound may be used to look at a specific area of pain. Ultrasound may be done along with a mammogram.
• Mammogram. If your healthcare professional feels a breast lump or thickening in the breast that's not typical or detects a specific area of pain in the breast, you may need an X-ray exam of your breast that looks at the area of concern. This test is called a diagnostic mammogram.
• Breast biopsy. If imaging exams show suspicious breast lumps, areas of thickening or other areas that are not typical, you may need a biopsy. During a biopsy, your healthcare professional takes a small sample of breast tissue from the area of concern and sends it to a lab for analysis.

Treatment

For many people, breast pain goes away on its own over time. You may not need any treatment.

If breast pain doesn't go away on its own and you need treatment, your healthcare professional might suggest that you:

• Take steps to get rid of what could be causing the pain or making it worse. This may mean making a simple change, such as wearing a bra with extra support.
• Use a pain reliever you can buy without a prescription, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others). Talk with your healthcare professional about how much to take. Long-term use may raise the risk of liver damage and other side effects.
• Put a cream on the skin to help ease the pain. Creams that have medicines called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may help ease breast pain. They are available without a prescription. Before you try an NSAID cream, talk with your healthcare professional about which product to use.
• Make changes to medicines. If breast pain could be a side effect of a medicine that you take, your healthcare professional may suggest lowering the dose or taking a different form of that medicine. Don't make any changes to your medicines before talking with your healthcare professional.
• Take prescription medication. Prescription medicines may be used to treat intense breast pain or breast pain that lasts.
  
  For example, tamoxifen is a medicine that has been shown to ease serious breast pain. But it might lead to side effects that are more bothersome than the breast pain. This includes a risk of blood clots and a higher risk of uterine cancer in people who are past menopause.
  
  Another prescription medicine that can relieve breast pain is called danazol. But it carries the risk of potentially serious side effects, such as heart and liver conditions, as well as weight gain and voice changes.
• Treatment for other health concerns. If a health issue happening in another part of the body is causing breast pain, treatment for that condition can often ease or stop the pain.

Alternative medicine

Some vitamins and dietary supplements have been studied for the treatment of breast pain, including evening primrose oil, vitamin E, vitamin B-1 and vitamin B-6. But research has shown limited or mixed results.

If you're interested in using a vitamin or dietary supplement for breast pain, talk with your healthcare professional first. Ask about the correct dose to take. Also ask about the risks, benefits and possible side effects.

If you try a vitamin or supplement for breast pain, stop taking it if your breast pain doesn't get better after a few months. Try only one at a time so that you know which one does or doesn't ease the pain.

Preparing for your appointment

You're likely to start by seeing your primary healthcare professional. But when you call to make an appointment, you may be referred to a breast health specialist.

What you can do

When you make the appointment, ask if there's anything you need to do beforehand, such as not eat or drink before a test.

To help your healthcare professional see whether your breast pain is cyclic or noncyclic, write down when you have breast pain and other symptoms and bring that information to your appointment.

Also, make a list of:

• All your symptoms, including any that don't seem related to the reason for your appointment.
• Key personal information, including major stresses, recent life changes and family medical history.
• All medicines, vitamins and other supplements you take, including the doses.
• Questions to ask your healthcare professional.

Take a family member or friend along, if possible, to help you remember the information you're given.

For breast pain, some basic questions to ask your healthcare professional include:

• What is the most likely cause of my symptoms?
• What kinds of tests might I need?
• What treatment do you recommend?
• Are there any home remedies I might try?

What to expect from your doctor

Your healthcare professional may ask you questions such as:

• Where in your breast do you feel pain?
• How long have you had breast pain?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is your pain?
• Do you have pain in one or both breasts?
• Does the pain seem to happen in any pattern?
• Have you ever had a mammogram? When was your last one?
• Do you have any other symptoms, such as a breast lump, area of thickening in the breast or nipple discharge?
• Have you noticed any skin changes, such as a change in skin color or a rash?
• Have you recently had a baby?
• Have you recently had a pregnancy loss?
• How does the pain affect your quality of life? For example, does it make it hard to work, sleep or have sex? Does the pain make it hard for you to do other daily activities?
• Have you been involved in any activities or had a recent injury to your chest that might have caused the breast pain?

Your healthcare professional also may check your risk of breast cancer based on factors such as your age and your personal and family medical history.