Currently, more and more women are suffering from breast nodules, and it is causing panic. So, what is a breast nodule? How should they be treated? Breast nodules, or what we call mastopathy. The ductal epithelium of the breast changes in response to the menstrual cycle. When estrogen increases, it stimulates the epithelial cells to proliferate, and once the hormone level decreases, the proliferated cells will revert and recover. If there is a disruption in the body’s hormone levels or a problem with the ductal epithelium, it will cause a continuous process of proliferation without recovery, which will lead to the formation of nodules over time. When breast nodules are present, women may experience intermittent swelling and pain in the breast, which may be related to emotions and stress, and may worsen before menstruation and ease afterwards. On palpation, hard nodules can be found in the breast, some of which are painful to the touch. Usually these nodules are detected by ultrasonography. So, what should I do if I have a breast nodule? Usually the nodules are not very large. If they are only a few millimeters, especially cystic nodules, follow-up is sufficient, with ultrasound examinations done once every six months to see if the nodules have increased in size. If the pain is obvious, you can take some Chinese medicine for breast enlargement to relieve the pain by activating blood circulation and relieving blood stasis and liver and Qi. If the nodule is larger than 1cm, especially for patients over 40 years old, surgery is recommended to remove it. The reason is that breast nodules have the possibility of malignant changes, especially when they are affected by adverse external stimuli. So, how to operate on a 1cm or even a few millimeters nodule? Don’t worry, minimally invasive surgery can easily solve this problem. Minimally invasive surgery is more targeted and less likely to damage the surrounding normal glandular tissues by clearly identifying the location of the nodule through ultrasound localization. An experienced surgeon can usually remove a nodule of about 1cm in just five minutes, under local anesthesia. Our breast surgery department at Oriental Hospital performs hundreds of such minimally invasive surgeries on breast nodules a year, all with good results and solving real problems for patients. Of course, some of them are diagnosed as malignant after surgery, and then they need to be enlarged and treated as breast cancer. There is no need to be nervous about having breast nodules, please see a specialist, most of the patients do not need surgical intervention and follow-up is sufficient.