I have had pain in my left breast for quite some time (around a year). I always feel like a burden when I go to see the doctor so stupidly left it in the hope it would disappear. Around 6 months in I started to notice my left nipple would invert when it’s not stimulated. Now when stimulated it’s hard but remains inverted then I have to almost massage it out (5 times out of 10). The pain has gotten worse and I finally bit the bullet to go to the doctors. I regularly check my breasts but to be honest I never really know what I’m doing, before I went to the doctors I did a check (with the help of a Youtube tutorial) and managed to pinpoint where the pain is coming from.
It was a fairly large lump at the bottom of my breast. Very hard, round and painful (the only way I can describe it is like someone putting a lit cigarette out in my chest).
I went to the GP who said:
- It’s mobile which is a good sign but to be sure he’d refer me to the hospital
2 weeks later at the hospital I saw a consultant who did a similar breast exam to my GP. He said:
- I’m only 26 so I didn’t really need to be there (maybe he was trying to be reassuring but it didn’t come across that way)
- The lump was ‘almost certainly’ a cyst because of the pain
- He’d send me for an ultrasound to give me peace of mind
I saw another physician a little over an hour later, she did an ultrasound and saw:
- A very firm lump which she immediately confirmed to not be a cyst
- She said it was dense and quite ‘vascular’
- A doppler scan showed me all the veins going to and from it (I think that’s what it was)
- She said if it wasn’t so painful (the scan made me cry) she would have said it could be a fibroadenoma but the pain means she ruled that out.
- She attributed the nipple inversion to blocks ducts which she confirmed on the ultrasound and said this was normal.
She did a Wide Bore Needle biopsy and afterwards I was sent back to the waiting room to go and see the consultant once more. I was also told that I’d be brought back to hospital after a week to talk through my results/next steps.
The consultant then said (without having looked at the images she’d taken or the voice notes):
- When I said it’s not a cyst he said “It’s a fibroadenoma then, nothing to worry about”
- I asked whether he’d concluded this from the scans, he said he doesn’t have them yet
- He said it will take up to 3 weeks to get to results and that if I have a fibroadenoma (which he echoed it was almost definitely) there won’t be any next steps.
I was already terrified to begin with but now the confusion has made things worse. Personally, I don’t think anyone should be able to say it’s almost definitely something without having looked at the scans or really taking the time to listen to my symptoms.
Sorry for the massive back story but while I’m waiting for the results I wanted to know whether anyone has had:
- A case where their Fibroadenoma was painful
- Conflicting opinions/information from doctors
- Had something that’s benign/painful which isn’t a Fibroadenoma
I have so many questions and if it will really take up to 3 weeks to have any answers I would just like to know if there are others out there who have experienced similar. I know breast pain is common but I know the difference between it being disruptive and debilitating.
