It is every woman’s dream to have a pair of healthy and plump breasts. In order to achieve the desired effect, many people are willing to spend huge amounts of money to get breast augmentation and breast enlargement. But in the pursuit of a beautiful appearance, women should not forget that health is the most important thing. In the UK, 1 in 9 women will suffer from breast cancer at some point in their lives. In Australia, the ratio is 11:1, and the number of breast cancer deaths is 2,500 per year. The incidence of breast cancer is increasing every year and the age span of patients is getting wider. For urban women, breast cancer has quietly threatened their health. Late childbearing, lack of breastfeeding, use of health products and cosmetics containing trace amounts of estrogen, tremendous work pressure, emotional stress, all these are risk factors for breast cancer. In order to prevent the disease from happening, it is especially important for women to take care of themselves and have checkups on a regular basis. Patients who find abnormalities inadvertently or during self-examination should go to the hospital for early diagnosis and treatment. At this time, how to correctly self-examine breast is especially important. As a surgeon who has been engaged in breast tumor for nearly 20 years, I combine some of my own experience in practicing medicine and recommend some correct methods of breast self-examination to you. The best time for examination: For women with normal menstruation, the 9th to 11th day after menstruation is the best time for breast examination, usually about a week after menstruation. At this time, estrogen has the least effect on the breast and the breast is in a relatively static state, making it easy to detect lesions. This is important because many women experience increased breast enlargement just before their menstrual period, when the sense of nodularity in the breast increases and misdiagnosis and leakage may occur. Breast examination should first observe the development of the breast, whether both breasts are symmetrical and similar in size, whether both nipples are at the same level, whether there is retraction and depression of the nipple; whether there is erosion of the nipple and areola, what is the color of the breast skin, whether there is edema and orange peel-like changes, whether there is redness and swelling and other inflammatory manifestations, and whether there is anger in the superficial veins of the breast area. Any nipple entropion, skin indentation, structural shape abnormalities, masses and nipple overflow are clues to breast cancer. Palpation should be performed with the belly of the index, middle and ring fingers rather than the fingertips. Palpation should be performed in a circular motion, turning laterally from the nipple outward. This can be done by applying body wash to the hands in the shower to facilitate gliding. Place one hand behind the head and use the index, middle, and ring fingers of the other hand to examine. Press, spiral, and glide to check the entire breast area in a carpet pattern; don’t forget to check the clavicle and underarm lymph nodes. In Europe, it is estimated that 70% of breast cancer patients detected by self-examination are found when pressing and sliding with the bathing gel on the surface of the breast in the shower, which shows that this method is effective in self-examination of the breast. Raise your arms up and look at the sides of both breasts from left to right in the mirror. If an intramammary lump is found underneath the skin changes, adhesions between the skin and the lump, or receding and depressed skin, the possibility of breast cancer should be taken seriously and considered (in a small number of patients, the possibility of intraductal papilloma exists). In conclusion, skin changes are also an effective way to identify various breast diseases by observation. Interestingly, breast cancer is more often found in one area of the breast. If the breast is divided equally into 4 quadrants, the chances of finding breast cancer in each quadrant (in a clockwise fashion) are: outer upper quadrant: 41%, inner upper quadrant: 14%, inner lower quadrant: 5%, inner upper quadrant: 6%, and periapical: 34%. Almost half of all breast cancers occur in the upper outer quadrant of the breast to the axilla. Therefore, women should be encouraged to examine this area carefully. Breast cancer in the areola area has a higher chance of metastasis, so early detection is especially important. Of course, self-examination is not a substitute for examination by a specialist. When there is obvious discomfort, when self-examination reveals changes in the breast area or the armpit area but you are not sure why the lesion is there, or when you are suffering from various breast diseases, you should visit your doctor and undergo relevant specialist examinations under the guidance of your doctor. The main purpose of self-examination is to identify problems, and the role of the specialist is to identify and solve them!