What follow up should I request for this medical issue [slightly NSFW]?

Does a shift in your posture or position have any effect?

Not that I’ve noticed.

I am not you, and a thigh is not a breast, and I am male, but I have had similar stabbing/tearing pains in my right upper thigh, occasionally. Not every night, but last night I did.

When I asked my doc, she said it was a nerve somewhere along the right leg – not necessarily in the thigh -that was acting up. She told me to turn over (Change my sleeping position) and go back to sleep;.

But of course, my experience as a male may or not be useful to you. The pain sounds familiar though.

Hmm interesting. To be clear though (I don’t know if I was clear in my original post) this isn’t happening only at night. I’m sitting up in my office chair at work right now and getting pain every few seconds. It has also awoken me at night before too.

Change Bra’s as sometimes ill fitting bra’s cause the pain you are describing.
Get advice on fitting from a qualified sales person who knows how to properly fit you.
It may help.

Worth a try. I haven’t bought a new bra in ages. Thanks.

I have been told that my “mystery breast pain” is hormonally influenced, but that a mammogram may be a good idea, and that I should avoid caffeine,.

Thanks @syz. I may seek a mammogram just to be safe; never had one before. I’m too young for routine screening but I’m sure I could probably get one because of this symptom. I never consume caffeine.

Well, the good news is the chance of breast cancer in both breasts at the same time is so minuscule that you pribably don’t need to give that second thought, although always good to rule it out.

Do you see any rash in or near the breast, or have any discharge from the nipples?

Your pcp could run a typical “girl” hormone test I guess, and maybe make sure they test for prolactin on the blood test. Prolactin is an important hormone for the breasts. When women have nipple discharge and aren’t pregnant it can be from high prolactin, which can be a malfunctioning pituitary gland or can be caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland, which is almost never cancer. There are other reasons prolactin can be high. Since I don’t think you have the discharge symptom, most likely it’s nothing like that, I’m just explaining prolactin a little, and why I think they might test it. Do you get headaches?

I agree to make sure your bra fits well. If I remember correctly, you are very thin, and the classic mistake most women make us their bra is too loose around the back, the usual symptom is bra strap falling down. Also, when the back is too loose the wires slide up and hit the breast (the sliding up is also what makes the straps loose). When it slides up and shifts it can irritate the breast tissue and cause pain for various reasons. The wire should be below the breast well against the chest.

After all that, I think it’s more likely something with a nerve if it’s shooting, but most likely not related to your bra, but it’s best to have a bra that fits well no matter what. The soft tissues in the breast don’t repair like muscles. When you hurt them they stay hurt so to speak, and that’s why breast start to sag even if you build up the muscle below.

Hmmm…so maybe in the blood work also check your B12. That can affect the nerves.

If you want to kill the pain if it’s very annoying I would try Tylenol, but it doesn’t sound to me like it’s that bad from how you describe it. Tylenol stops the pain message through the nervous system, while other drugs like ibuprofen work a little differently. Remember if you take Tylenol you shouldn’t mix it with alcohol, very bad for the liver.

That’s all my thoughts. Except to say it might also be some random thing they never figure out. Plus, it easily could be something I would never guess obviously. Let us know what your doctor says.

One last question. Had you gained weight when the pains started?

Thanks @JLeslie. I think I caused confusion with my wording; the pain is only in one breast. I said it’s on “both the left and right” meaning the left and right sides of the one breast. No other breast symptoms besides the pain; no rash or discharge.

I don’t really get headaches. Sometimes if I have had a very long night of sleep, like 12 hours (happens occasionally on weekends) I wake up with a headache. That’s about it.

I have been losing weight for quite a few months now.

My bra is probably somewhat too large but I literally don’t know if smaller bras are available, lol. I’m already wearing a 32A. I’ve never seen anything smaller than that for sale. I don’t wear bras with wires.

I’m not allowed to take NSAIDs so Tylenol is my go-to anyway. I haven’t taken pain killers for this issue yet. The pain is not severe, it is just so distracting with it being on and off every few seconds.

Thanks for the help.

If it’s on and off every few seconds, could it coincide with your heartbeat?

No, it’s much slower than my heartbeat.

When I worked for Wacoal we had petite bras size 30. I don’t know if they still make them, and I have no idea if you are petite? Under 5’4”? The Construction of the bra is a shorter cup, and a few other differences. It’s literally made for shorter people. Wacoal is a Japanese company (unless it has been sold) so they were food at fitting petite people I guess.

I doubt it’s your bra causing the problem anyway.

Why a GP? Did you ask a GYN last time?

LOL you reminded me I have some lingerie made by an Asian company where the bra is actually slightly too small for me. Maybe I need to be shopping for bras designed for Asian women. They seem to have smaller sizes available. I am 5’4”.

So far I have just brought this up at PCP appointments that I had already scheduled for unrelated reasons. It didn’t feel severe enough to make a special appointment for, and I just haven’t seen my OBGYN in the time since this started. Maybe that’s a good next step.

I don’t feel like you need to be in a panic or anything, but GYN probably deal with it more.

5’4” you’re right on the edge of petite. Probably, a lot of the items are too short. Especially depending on whether you are long torso or not, etc.

If you’ve had an injury to the area it could be Peripheral neuropathy. Sometimes it can be an injury you don’t even notice, like a bad elbow hit. Sometimes it can be a broken rib. Have you had any injury to the area?

Not that I know of.

Does the pain interact with your breathing? I mean does the intensity or location vary as you inhale or exhale?

I don’t think so. It’s not happening today like it was yesterday so I can’t really test.

It sounds like the best thing to do at this point is to track when the pain happens, along with your menstrual cycle. Be prepared to present this to the doctor at the next appt.

I don’t have resolution on this yet but I do have an update. I started getting breakthrough bleeding so I scheduled a gyn visit. They did an ultrasound and think they saw a polyp in my uterus. They need to do a hysteroscopy to confirm. I don’t know too much about that procedure but I hope they’ll be able to take a biopsy during that? They couldn’t fit me in till mid December so I have some waiting to do.

Anyway, I’m guessing this is all related because I read that uterine polyps can be caused by hormone issues.

If I were a betting woman I’d guess the end result of all of this will be switching birth control methods (I was already thinking of getting an IUD anyway) and seeing if the breast pain and breakthrough bleeding go away.

Fun stuff.

Tumeric.

My sister was scheduled to have surgery to remove a polyp that was also causing bleeding. Took tumeric. When they did the pre-op scan, the polyp had reduced significantly in size that they cancelled the surgery.

Not saying that if you take tumeric you won’t need to have the surgery anymore. But it’s worth a shot.

No one’s said anything about surgery. I need a hysteroscopy – a diagnostic test – to make sure I even have a polyp. I don’t know what’ll need to happen from there.

I’m wary of these folk remedies but thanks for the suggestion.

Not just a folk remedy.

There are plenty of peer-reviewed research on the anti-inflammatory aspects of curcumin.

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Sure, I’ve heard about that. But a polyp isn’t inflammation?

Sorry I’m not trying to be argumentative I’m just confused.

Cervical polyps can be caused by different things.

- hormonal
– inflammation
– infection
– clogged blood vessels

The way I look at it, four possible causes. Only one I can treat at home with a “folk remedy”. There’s no harm in talking tumeric. But there is peer-reviewed research on its efficacy.

No need to apologize. I would question medical advice from a stranger over the internet as well.

Thank you, I understand now. Yes, no harm in trying.