What doctors don’t tell you Breast lumps self-identification The breast is mainly made up of glands and supporting tissues, and there are 15-20 duct systems in each breast, each with branching ducts below the main ducts, branching out like the roots of a tree, with the end forming the milk blisters. The milk secreted by the vesicles passes through all levels of the milk ducts to reach the main milk ducts, and finally spills out through the milk holes opening at the nipple. Each ductal system is relatively independent in its distribution, similar to each orange petal in an orange, and each system is self-referential. The bimodal peaks are supported by the fatty and fibrous connective tissue that fills the spaces between the different glands. Problems in any of these complex structures can produce physiological changes and lesions, resulting in breast lumps. Breast lumps arise when there is an abnormality in one of the many breast structures as described above and the changes are different from the normal structure, either large or small, long or short, regular or irregular, round or long, with different shapes and textures. A breast lump is only a clinical symptom, not a clinical diagnostic name. Generally, when a breast lump is found, patients are always anxious to know what disease the lump is. Just as you can initially determine whether an orange is spoiled by touching the surface of the orange, feel the quality by squeezing the orange, and know that an orange is rotten by observing the moldy spots on the orange peel, you can also make certain judgments about the nature of breast lumps and specific diseases by observing the color and shape of the breast surface and palpating the size, texture, and activity of the lumps. An experienced mammographer can determine the nature of a lump by visual inspection and palpation to a degree of over 90%. When you feel a lump, how can you tell if it will become cancerous in the future? Women should first learn the health self-assessment of breast lumps to detect potential problems as early as possible. 1. Periodic premenstrual breast swelling and pain, multiple nodular or lumps felt in the breast with unclear boundaries, which can be pushed, significantly relieved after menstruation and the lumps disappear, may be physiological breast enlargement. 2, painless breast lumps, the mass is oval or oval, regular shape, smooth surface of the lump, good mobility, clear demarcation with surrounding tissues, tough, mostly solitary, but also multiple, breast fibroadenoma is more likely. 3.More often seen in hypertrophic breasts, with smooth surface, soft texture, clear boundary and no pain when touched, it belongs to breast lipoma, lipoma is more common in multiple cases. 4.Lumps that occur during breastfeeding, with still-clear borders and no tenderness, and with clear borders, mostly belong to breast cysts. 5.Postpartum breastfeeding mothers, especially primiparous mothers, confined masses with unclear borders, unsmooth surface, poor mobility, painful to touch, redness and swelling on the surface of the mass, generalized high fever, chills and rapid pulse, acute mastitis is more likely. 6, early painless solitary small lumps, hard, surface is not smooth, poorly defined with the surrounding tissue, not easily pushed, breast malignant tumor is more likely. Especially women over 40 years old should pay high attention to this. If there is single hole overflow from nipple, bright red blood overflow or light clear plasma overflow, lump is felt under or around the areola, and there is overflow when the nipple is lightly pressed, breast ductoscopy must be performed to check for papilloma in the breast duct. Here I would like to remind you that those breast lumps that are “painless” should be beware! This is because painless breast lumps happen to be one of the characteristics of breast cancer. Generally speaking, inflammatory breast lumps are often accompanied by severe breast pain and local inflammatory reactions such as redness, swelling, heat and pain, and the lump may become septic and break down; proliferative breast lumps are often accompanied by premenstrual breast swelling and pain, while breast lumps in breast cancer are usually painless in the early stage, and only when the skin is ulcerated and infiltrated in the late stage will pain appear. In contrast, breast lumps are usually painless in the early stage, and only in the late stage when the skin is ulcerated and infiltrated. Therefore, painless lumps need to be highly alert! Of course, fibroadenoma lumps are not painful and are often found unintentionally, but they are usually found in young women and are usually regular, round, firm, with clear borders and high mobility, all of which are important differences from malignant lumps. Although doctors have told you the secrets of self-identification of breast lumps, in view of the continuous development of imaging, many breast nodules and lumps that are not clinically accessible to doctors have been constantly discovered by imaging means such as ultrasound and breast MRI, so it is recommended to have regular medical checkups at hospitals to achieve early detection of hidden lesions.