But I Don’t Have Breast Cancer Symptoms

In many illnesses, there are obvious signs and symptoms pointing to a health issue. With cancer, oftentimes no symptoms are the rule. What do you feel like when you have breast cancer?

Most often, it doesn’t feel like anything at all. You feel perfectly healthy and normal. We have been told most emphatically on more than one occasion – “it can’t be breast cancer – I feel fine”! No flu-like symptoms, no palpable mass, no fatigue or exhaustion…nothing to suggest the presence of a cancer lurking in your breast.

Not every cancer is found in women without symptoms – but we want to remind you that in a majority of breast cancers found in the United States there are no physical symptoms or signs.

Let’s review some of the more important signs and symptoms that should prompt a visit to your doctor or healthcare provider:

• a persistent lump, hard knot, mass or thickening in the breast or axilla

• change in size or shape of the breast

• change in appearance of the nipple

• dimpling or pulling in of the skin of the breast

• change in the texture of the skin or nipple

• new breast discharge or leaking from the nipple, especially bloody

• swelling or warmth of the breast

• new breast pain in one area

Because one in eight women will get breast cancer in her lifetime, our best means of beating back cancer is through early detection. Annual screening after the age of 40 for all women with breasts – large or small, family history or no, symptoms or no  –  is key.

Originally published 12/12/13 on mammographykc.com.