Symptom of Breast Pain During Menopause
Medically known as mastalgia, mastodynia, and mammalgia; breast pain refers to discomfort, tenderness, and/or pain in any or both breasts. Among menopausal women, breast pain is a common complaint and that it affects 70% of women of which only 10% tend to go through a severe pain negatively influencing the relationships and daily work.
Breast pain can be either cyclical or non-cyclical. In cyclical, breast pain occurs due to the hormonal changes that is the most common type of breast pain in pre- and perimenopausal women. On the other hand, the non-cyclical breast pain is not caused by hormonal fluctuations and so; it is common in postmenopausal women. Extramammary breast pain is one more type of breast pain taking place outside the breast.
No matter with which type of breast pain you are suffering from, you can treat it by learning about its symptoms, causes, and treatment options. So, continue reading!
- Symptoms
The symptoms of breast pain tend to be lasting or irregular during menopause. Further, many of them will notice the symptoms in only one of the breasts, while some will experience in both the breasts. In addition, in some women, the symptoms exist in only one location of any of her breasts. Listed below are the common symptoms of breast pain.
- Breast swelling
- Breast soreness
- Prickly breast pain
- Burning breast pain
- Feelings of dullness, heaviness, or aching
- Tightness
- Fullness
- Aches
- Breast tenderness
- Causes
 It is obvious that the most common cause of breast pain is hormonal fluctuations during menopause. In menopause, it is natural for the levels of estrogen and progesterone to rise and fall in the body. This imbalance has a negative effect on the different parts and functions of the body. So, breast pain, as a symptom, is no exception at all. Besides the hormonal fluctuations that are the most common causes, there are many other factors that contribute to breast pain, which are rare. Listed are some of them.
- Breast cysts
- Breast trauma
- Past breast surgery
- Breast size
- Stress
- Alcohol consumption
- Oral contraceptives
- Antidepressants
- Mastitis
- Hormone replacement therapy
- Cholesterol and heart drugs
- Diagnosis
 During menopause, breast discomfort rarely needs any special attention. However, it is always good to visit a doctor and share your experiences about the feelings and symptoms. This is because sometimes, breast pain can be a symptom of cancer too. So, if you visit a doctor, it will be easy not only to detect this, but to also manage breast tenderness.
Other reasons due to which you must visit a doctor include experiencing prolonged or mysterious breast pain along with other associated symptoms. This is because you can then rule out more serious causes of breast pain. When you go to visit a doctor, you will be examined physically and clinically. In case if there is more serious symptom suspected, a doctor might decide for some more tests.
- TreatmentsA myriad of self-care actions and natural treatments aid in mitigating breast pain during menopause. Self care actions involve avoiding dietary and lifestyle triggers, doing regular physical and breathing exercises, massaging, and practicing relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation. These seem to be carrying no risk and so are recommended as the part of the first approach in treating breast pain.
Further, all these surely alleviate the symptoms of breast pain; but do not do anything to deal with the root problem - hormonal imbalance. So, this brings into the picture the use of natural therapies that are safe and effective in getting relief. Options here include herbs, acupuncture, and aromatherapy. However, many women are of the opinion that a combination of self-care and natural therapies is the most effective and safest way to tackle breast pain in menopause.
If the above approaches fail, then doctors recommend going for medical options. This is because these methods are the most invasive ones bearing high costs. Here, the Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is the most common one, which is very quick in combating pain, but carries the risk of cancer too.
|
More Topics
- Symptom of Anxiety AttackImagine a room where you are reading a newspaper and then suddenly, without any apparent trigger, your heart beat doubles, you panic, and finally you experience terror. This is nothing but a typical experience of an anxiety attack. Many times, you might experience continue periods of such tremors because on the onset of the first episode, you tend to fear about the arrival of another bringing drastic behavioral changes.
- Causes of IncontinenceIncontinence needs your urgent attention without which you won’t be able to get rid of it. But, that would first involve knowing the causes of incontinence followed by treatments available. Ok, we will first start with the most common type of incontinence that is stress incontinence. As this is commonly seen in women who have approached menopause or who have entered the postmenopausal stage, it’s easy to detect the root cause behind it. It can be none other than the hormonal imbalance.
- Menopausal Itchy SkinMany of us tend to take the occurrence of itchy skin symptom very lightly. However, we are not aware that skin changes leading to itchy skin have the power to disrupt the normal routine life by causing distress and affecting sleep. Medically known as pruritis, itchy skin during the menopausal time is described as the unusual skin condition characterized by itching and red rashes.
|
List of Menopause Symptoms
|
As the menopause approach to a woman, she surely faces a few or many of the menopausal symptoms. However, the symptom for which it is most difficult to give a positive response is weight gain. 
Most women think that there is no way to come out of depression due to hopelessness and lack of confidence and so they think of suicide. But, let me tell you that this is not true. Never be guided by what your mind says...