Cystic Hyperplasia of the Breast – The Public Enemy of the Female Breast

  Cystic hyperplasia of the breast is a common breast disease, accounting for about 80% of patients in the breast specialist clinic. It occurs in middle-aged women and is rare after menopause, but now many young unmarried women also suffer from this disease, and sometimes the symptoms are more severe. The reason for this is probably related to the disorder of female hormone metabolism in the body, especially the imbalance of estrogen and progesterone ratio, which makes the breast parenchyma hyperplasia or incomplete rejuvenation.  Cystic hyperplasia of the breast has more names, and in the early stage of the disease is called breast pain, mainly manifested as periodic breast swelling and pain, the pain is aggravated before menstruation, the pain is reduced or disappears after the onset of menstruation, and sometimes the pain is present throughout the menstrual cycle. At this time, the appearance of breast lumps is rare, and only granular, unsmooth nodules with tough, soft texture and unclear borders are palpable on the breast tissue. In the later stages of the disease, called cystic hyperplasia of the breast, the number of breast lumps is variable, in the form of masses or disks, with unclear borders, and sometimes they are not easily distinguished from cancerous lumps. Pain is not obvious, and the main manifestation is nipple overflow and lumps. The overflow is mostly straw yellow, brown plasma or bloody liquid, usually unilateral, and sometimes discharged on its own without pressure. Breast fibroadenosis resides in between.  The diagnosis of cystic hyperplasia of the breast mainly relies on medical history and breast palpation, and experienced breast specialists are able to make better judgments.  The treatment of cystic hyperplasia varies according to the early and late stages of the disease, breast pain and breast fibroadenopathy are mostly treated with medication, usually with Chinese medicine such as breast fetish elimination and breast health tablets for a few courses of treatment, if the effect is not good or the symptoms are more serious, the treatment can be changed to oral triamcinolone, but at the same time, vitamin B and vitamin E must be supplemented. Moreover, 20-65% of breast cancers are complicated by cystic hyperplasia, so it is often called “precancerous lesions” in clinical practice. In addition to pharmacological treatment, the following conditions should be closely observed and more vigilance should be exercised: (1) if you are older than 40 years old, have breast pain without menstrual cycle, and have unilateral onset of nodularity, a segmental excisional biopsy should be performed; (2) if you are between 30-40 years old, have obvious clinical symptoms and are becoming more serious, you can first be treated with pharmacological treatment for about 3 months and then have a mass excisional biopsy if it is not effective; (3) if you are younger than 30 years old, especially if you are unmarried, you can have a mass excisional biopsy. Age less than 30 years old, especially for unmarried and childless, drug treatment can be carried out for six months under close observation. If the treatment is ineffective, especially if accompanied by a nodular lump on one side with no obvious pain, lump excision biopsy should be done as early as possible and if cancer cells are found, the lump should be treated according to breast cancer.