Hi All,
Just intrested to see if anyone else has experienced this.
Its a strange one, as I was just ignoring it but today after scrubbing myself down in the shower and still coming out with a weird odor in my surgery armpit side decided to give it a google…
It seams to be an actual thing… but not well documented or talked about. I’m assuming because like me I wasn’t really going to mention it, as with everything else going on being diagnosed with cancer having a double Mastectomy, ongoing treatments etc… its really not that important.
However, I am curious to know if anyone else has or is experiencing this and if it ever goes away.
I’m 2 weeks post Double Masectomy and 2 months post SLNB and my SLNB left side gives off a horrid odor still doesn’t matter how much I wash. My family and friends say its not that noticeably but I find it so stinky 
especially when exersing dreading the summer stentch 
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I noticed this after my mastectomy/slnb back in 2020. I had a small almost permanently damp patch in the crease of my armpit. The surgeon had accessed the lymph node through the mastectomy incision so it wasn’t from a wound. I think I asked the nurses here about it but they had no advice.
My drain didn’t work very well (I think it shifted and the end was blocked off) and was removed after a couple of days because there wasn’t any fluid coming out. Then I quickly developed a seroma. When this was drained I noticed the liquid smelled exactly the same as my armpit. So my conclusion is that it was possibly excess lymph fluid coming out.
Anyway I don’t know when it stopped but it definitely stopped. So there’s hope for you.
Also I had a lumpectomy last year, with a separate incision for the sentinel node removal. This time I didn’t notice the same problem.
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Hi
I definitely had an altered smell after my therapeutic mammoplasty and SLNB - I had a drain that didn’t work so well and went on to have fat necrosis … now that has all settled I have to say the smell has settled and changed so I suspect this is something that may pass with time.
All the best!
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Hi @kat-jack
This is something I have noticed as well and its never mentioned .
I am a man and had a Mastectomy and then my lymph glands removed on my left side and that armpit never sweats at all where as the right one is so bad that I take some anti perspirant out with me . It can get embarrassing
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Don’t know if it’s the same thing but it seemed to me that I had problems finding an anti- perspirant / deodorant that worked for a while. I tried some aluminium free ones most of which didn’t work or made my pits sore. Most of the ordinary ones that I used prior to my lumpectomy didn’t seem to work anymore - very strange . Pits got smelly very quickly . The operated side seemed to be worse . Whatever it was it seems to have passed but I’m sticking to Dove and Wild which seem to work separately and together. Maybe it will pass for you too . Xx
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Thanks for the replies, glad im not going crazy and not alone with the smelly pits 
im also pleased to hear it does go away. Xx
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Interesting that @helen3 mentioned fat necrosis as I had an oil cyst - which is necrosed fat that the body makes a coating around , in my breast about 3 months after radiotherapy . It seems to have absorbed now .
Hi, new here but glad I found this thread. I also have noticed the armpit where I had lymph nodes removed and breast surgery has become really smelly. I went for my scan to be measured for my radiotherapy course and I had showered before hand and when I put my arms up the smell was awful. It was very embarrassing. I have got Wild deodorant now and it seems to be helping.
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Welcome to the forum @andipandi . Good luck with your radiotherapy .
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