“I heard that I don’t need to worry about breast cancer until after my thirty’s…” If you have ever heard this or that you only need breast examinations from your doctor, you’ve been told incorrectly. Watch the video below as Dr. Kenneth Chessick explains how to perform self-examinations and get an answer to the question “what does a lump in your breast feel like?”
The thing about breast cancer is it has no bias, especially if you have a family history of it. It does not care about your age, race, background, ethnicity, or anything else. Anyone is susceptible to it. That’s why it is important to perform self-examinations so that you can be aware of any changes in your body. If you’re not sure what you should be looking for or if you have a family history of breast cancer, you should perform monthly self-examinations and see your doctor regularly for checkups.
Contact the Law Office of Dr. Kenneth Chessick, and let our experts guide you through questions like what to expect, how often should you schedule appointments with your doctor, and if you’ve ever experienced a misdiagnosis. We are here to help!
Learn More:
How Do You Feel After Breast Cancer Diagnosis?
What Are The Difficulties In Diagnosing Breast Cancer?
Can The Diagnosis Of Breast Cancer Be Falsely Made?
Video Transcript
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:20 What Does A Lump In Your Breast Feel Like?
1:13 How Should Normal Breast Feel?
1:48 Signs To Look For In Self-Examinations
If a patient does a self-examination of her own breast, I think it’s highly advisable it should be done every month, what does breast cancer feel like, is the question.
0:20 What Does A Lump In Your Breast Feel Like?
And I can tell you that breast cancers don’t all fit into the same category, they may have different characteristics. Classically, breast cancer when you’re examining your breast, is a lump that’s hard that feels different than the surrounding breast tissue. That’s one sign of possible breast cancer. Once again, diagnosis can only be made by a tissue diagnosis by a biopsy.
But another finding that a patient may feel is that she feels a lump but it’s irregular. It’s not smooth like the surrounding breast tissue. That can be another finding. When she examines her breast, she may find that it’s fixed to the underlying covering of the chest wall muscles. We call that the fascia.
1:13 How Should Normal Breast Feel?
Normal breast is movable over the breast wall, fascia, but breast cancer, sometimes, if it’s attached to that fascia is not movable, and that’s a highly suspicious sign. As I’ve mentioned already if there are overlying skin changes. There can be some dimpling of the skin. There can be some findings where the skin has thickened over the mass. Sometimes you’ll see blood coming from the nipple particularly when that breast is massaged in that direction. Those can all be signs of breast cancer.
1:48 Signs To Look For In Self-Examinations
So in self-examination, a patient should examine her breast once a month, get an understanding for what her normal breast feels like, normal for her, and then when she finds a change, something that is different from what it was before, that’s the time for that lady to go seek a professional examination and further evaluation.
It cannot be stressed enough that serial self-examination is an effective way of taking care of yourself, and when you find that there’s something that’s abnormal and that’s changed from what is normal for you, that’s the time that patient should seek the care of a doctor.
