Index
There are many possible causes of the ailment in this region, both those due to breast problems and those that are not.
Step one : make sure it’s not your heart!
While your left breast pain is likely due to something else, the first question to ask yourself is whether you might have symptoms of a heart attack .
Keep in mind that the symptoms of heart disease in women are often very different from those in men. The pain can be mild, feel like a burning pain, or just feel like sore breasts.
Due to the often vague and subtle symptoms, women are more likely to miss the signs and die of a heart attack as a result.
Everyone should be familiar with the symptoms of a heart attack, which can include:
- Chest pain or pressure : One-fourth to one-third of people who have a heart attack do not experience any chest pain or pressure.
- Pain in your neck, jaw, or left arm.
- Shortness of breath – Shortness of breath is common in women who have a heart attack.
- Perspiration.
- Sickness.
- Dizziness or fainting
- A feeling that something is not right or a feeling of impending death.
What is the origin and symptoms?
After making sure that you do not need to call 911, the first step in determining the source of the pain in your left-sided breast is to decide whether the pain is originating in your breast or in its place relative to other structures above it. or below your breast.
This can be difficult to determine at times, and causes of both breasts and non-breasts must be considered.
The location where we perceive pain does not necessarily indicate the location of a medical problem.
Some of the nerves in our body are very specific. For example, a sensation on the fingertip can usually be located very precisely.
Other nerves are not that specific. They alert you to the general area of your body affected by some process, but they don’t pinpoint the precise area of pain as precisely.
If you find it difficult to tell if the pain you feel is in your breasts rather than some other structure in the general vicinity of your left breast, you are not alone.
Causes of breast pain on the left side related to the breast
Possible sinus-related causes of left-sided chest pain are discussed below, and then we’ll discuss the possibility of it being cancer or due to a condition outside of the breast.
Breast conditions that can cause left-sided breast pain can only include:
Injuries : Your breasts are covered by sensitive, elastic skin that protects nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissues, as well as the ducts and lobes to produce breast milk.
If you’ve had a breast injury, you can expect bruising and pain that will persist until the skin and underlying tissues have healed.
Sometimes an injury to the breast heals with scar tissue, and this scar tissue can cause pain ( fat necrosis ). Fat necrosis can also appear as a hard lump, making it difficult to distinguish from breast cancer, even on imaging tests, such as a mammogram.
Breast Surgery : After any type of breast surgery, whether it be augmentation, reduction, or reconstruction, your breasts will ache as the incisions heal and scar tissue forms.
And just like injury-related scar tissue, pain can come and go even long after your surgery.
Milk duct conditions and infections: Several benign but painful conditions can develop within your breast milk system. An abscess can occur under your nipple or areola.
The milk ducts can become clogged and infected, causing mastitis (a breast infection) or ductal ectasia. Breast cysts and fibroadenomas can grow and clog your milk or connective tissue system, creating aches and pains.
Hormonal causes : Hormonal changes can also cause breast tenderness, especially when levels change during a woman’s menstrual cycle or while taking hormones such as oral contraceptive pills, infertility treatments, or hormone replacement therapy.
While hormonal changes often cause pain in both breasts, the pain can be felt in one breast more than the other.
The hypothyroidism , characterized by a low level of thyroid hormones in the body, may also be related to disorders benign breast causing breast pain.
Infection / Inflammation : If you suspect a breast infection ( mastitis ) or inflammation, it is important that you visit your GP or gynecologist. You may need to take antibiotics or other prescription drugs to fix the problem.
Lumps : Finally, when you find lumps in your breasts that are not related to your menstrual cycle, or even if they are related to your menstrual cycle, see your doctor immediately for a clear diagnosis and proper treatment.
While your doctor can make a good guess as to whether a lump is benign or malignant, an imaging test and sometimes a biopsy is often needed to be sure.
Left breast pain due to left-sided breast cancer
Most of the time, but certainly not always, breast cancer is painless in the early stages. There are exceptions to this rule, especially with cancers like inflammatory breast cancer.
Inflammatory breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer that usually begins with pain, redness, and swelling in the breast.
Most people cannot feel a discreet lump, and cancer often looks like an infection. At first, the only symptom may be pain in one or the other breast.
Breast cancer in women occurs a little more often on the left side than on the right, although it occurs equally on both sides in men.
While breast lumps due to cancer are generally painless, there are many exceptions.
While breast pain is more likely due to something other than breast cancer, about one in six women with breast cancer has breast pain during the 90-day period before diagnosis.
Non-sinus causes of left breast pain
Sometimes when pain occurs, it is difficult to say exactly what hurts and where the pain is centered. When the pain hits you on the left side of your chest, you may think it is pain in the left breast, but the pain may be under your left breast.
Some causes of non-breast pain that feel like they are in your breast include:
Chest Wall Pain: Beneath your breast, there are chest wall muscles that can spasm during times of anxiety and stress, causing pain that can last for a few seconds to several days.
Pain caused by tension in the chest wall muscles can occur only on the left or right side. Similarly, if you have a pulled chest muscle or a left chest injury, aches and pains can occur.
Cardiac causes: As noted above, pain associated with heart attacks in women is often vague and different from symptoms in men.
If you are unsure of the source of your pain and have any risk factors for heart disease, it may be best to play it safe and seek immediate medical attention.
While typical symptoms of a heart attack include pressure or pressure pain in the chest area, accompanied by dizziness or sweating, some people, especially women, have only mild or atypical symptoms.
These can include nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath, or back or jaw pain.
Esophageal Causes : Because your esophagus runs below your left breast, GERD can occasionally feel like pain in the left breast.
A related condition, hiatal hernia, can cause similar symptoms. Pain related to the esophagus may feel more like a burning pain and you may have associated symptoms of an acidic taste in your mouth. But not always.
Other digestive system conditions, such as liver disease, can also sometimes cause pain that feels like it’s coming from your breast.
Cartilage: Inflammation of the cartilage between your breastbone (breastbone) and your ribs, something called costochondritis, can cause pain on the right or left side of the chest.
Fibromyalgia : Fibromyalgia can cause pain anywhere in your body, and chest pain is not uncommon. Fibromyalgia can affect the muscles, joints, and connective tissues, creating widespread or focused pain.
Pneumonia : the pneumonia can also cause pain on the left side, as their lungs are in the area of the chest under the breasts.
Pulmonary embolism : Blood clots in the legs that break off and travel to the lungs, pulmonary embolism, can cause pain that feels like it comes from your breast.
Skin-related causes, such as shingles
Sometimes women develop pain that feels like it is on the skin or on the outer surface of the breast.
This can be shingles, a condition caused by reactivation of chicken pox years or decades after the primary infection. The problem with shingles is that the pain can precede the onset of the rash by several days.
Shingles is the reactivated chickenpox virus.
What should I do if I have pain in my left breast?
There are several causes of left-sided breast pain, some more serious than others. The only way to know for sure is to seek medical attention.
One time evaluation is an hour in which a doctor and your breast is evaluated when you experience pain in one area of your breast, which seems to be getting worse; interferes with your normal activities; and it has lasted more than a few weeks.
Although the risk of cancer is pain in the woman’s breast, the main symptom is breast pain, doctor, medical care, medical care and communication.
During evaluation, doctor, examination and clinical examination, clinical examination, medical examination, medical examination and development.
Mammogram : it may refer to the tests that are included in a mammogram; If your doctor feels a lump or thickening on his clinical exam, he is referred for a diagnostic mammogram, an x-ray exam to assess the area of concern.
An ultrasound: An ultrasound exam uses sound waves to take pictures of your breasts. This exam may be necessary to focus on the source of your pain.
An ultrasound may be done, even if your mammogram is considered normal. A breast biopsy.
A mammogram and ultrasound may not be conclusive enough for your doctor to make a diagnosis; You may need to have a breast biopsy.
A small sample of breast tissue is removed from the pain site; The sample will be examined by a pathologist and a report of the findings will be sent to your doctor.
Treatment
If your left breast pain is due to a minor bothersome condition or a bigger problem like breast cancer or even heart disease, it is important to get an answer to the question of what is causing your pain. Pain is our body’s way of alerting us to a problem.
If you’ve seen your doctor but still don’t have a proper explanation for your pain, call again. You may need to consider getting a second opinion if pain persists in order to apply appropriate treatment based on the condition being diagnosed.
Finally, keep in mind that even with an explanation, it is certainly not uncommon for a person to have more than one process responsible for pain.
For example, you may have a common breast condition, such as a breast cyst, along with costochondritis.
In fact, it is not uncommon for people to receive a cancer diagnosis after evaluation for a seemingly unrelated concern.
