Hello, so this is probably one of these common threads but I need someone to talk to.
A week or so ago I found a hard lump on my left breast above my nipple. It’s painless, feels oval in shape and hard. I can pinch it if I try between my fingers and I’d say if feels “attached” to something but I can “wiggle” it, but not move it out of whatever it’s attached to.
to add context, I have an 8.5 month old baby who has been exclusively breastfed until weaning at 6 months. I am still feeding him regularly day and night.
it’s definitely not mastitis as I’ve had that with my other son, this is a single hard lump with no pain or heat.
Can anyone else confirm if they have had similar and what it turned out to be?
I am calling my GP tomorrow to be checked, and hopefully referred to the breast clinic although I don’t know how long the referral time will be . Thank you so much in advance.
Welcome to the forum .Its horrible to find a lump , you can’t help your mind going to the worst case scenario but If you read the other threads in this part of the forum you will see that the vast majority of people come back and report non cancer explanations for the changes they’ve noticed .Lots of support here if you need it.x
You will find stories all over the internet, and on here, to support a variety of benign causes for ‘lumps’ and of course you will find some that have been diagnosed as having a BC type needing treatment. I know its a painful thing to be told, but nobody can say they’ve had what you have had (from an online post) and its been nothing at all of concern, and similarly nobody can say they have had what you currently describe and it was a worrying lump. There is no way of knowing either way and thats what makes it so very painful emotionally to find something and have no knowledge of what it is - it leads people down the route of googling and searching desperately sometimes. It is natural and human to try and start looking for evidence to support things one way or the other, but often that can make you quite scared and swing between feeling ok and calm and then swinging back to scared.
I’m afraid that only those medics who are used to doing manual examinations day in and out can make a judgement, and often that judgement needs imaging and possibly a biopsy by specialists if there is cause to do extra investigations. Most referrals to the Breast Clinic are for benign reasons though and that is something to remember, although I’m sure it won’t stop your mind going to some frightening places. You are doing absolutely the right thing in notifying your GP of any breast tissue changes (not everyone does you know, it takes strength to do so), and it could be that tomorrow your GP finds no cause for concern - but even if there is a referral made, that wouldn’t be surprising as they take no chances if they are not 100 percent certain of benign causes, and that often isn’t easily done by a simple manual examination.
I am sorry you have this worry, finding something that isn’t usual for you makes your stomach drop and your head go into a spin, but I’m glad you are forging ahead with calling your GP as even in the unlikely event that this was a lump of concern, prompt, early diagnosis and modern effective treatment makes a massive difference. Please do let us know how you get on tomorrow, and we are more than happy to help with any support you might need.
I found a lump while breast feeding and my doctor told me it was a blocked milk duck. It was oval in shape and felt hard. It did go away eventually. I would get it checked out because you always should with lumps but it could very well just be that.