My chest feels tender to the touch & sore when I take a deep breath

[anxious_thoughts]

Hello,

Anyone ever experience this before?
Since yesterday my chest has been sore. It just feels very tender especially in the centre and right above my breasts mostly on the right side. I can also feel it on my upper sides and armpits. It feels slightly heavy but that could be because I'm paying more attention to it than usual.

The pain doesn't worsen with activity or anything. But I can't stop thinking that it's something sinister. :weep:

[Gary A]

If it's tender to touch then it's muscular. If you're worrying about your heart, don't, because pain caused by a problem with the heart doesn't get worse by the chest itself being touched.

[.Poppy.]

It could also be costochondritis. That is essentially where the cartilage that connects your ribs to your sternum gets inflamed. There are probably a lot of causes, but for some reason anxiety is a big one. :shrug:

Since there are nerves that wrap all around your ribs, my doc explained to me that sometimes there can be a lot of referred pain (like side/back/shoulder).

It's not sinister, just uncomfortable. A painkiller and wet heat is helpful, though. And it should pass.

I get this a lot. I've been to the doc a couple of times for it...once because I was scared as to the origin and again because it wasn't going away. Nothing "bad" just irritating. Now whenever I have chest pain, instead of freaking out, the first thing I do is press near my sternum...and it's always sore, proving it's just costo returning again. :)

[anxious_thoughts]

Hi Gary, thanks for responding!
Muscular pain is probably what it is. It doesn't hurt much today when I take a deep breath. But still a bit sore to the touch.

---------- Post added at 12:00 ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 ----------

Hello poppy,

I've never heard of costo before but now that you've brought it up I realize that when I press on my sternum it's pretty sore to the touch. Anxiety can cause the cartilage to inflame? I've actually been battling this anxiety quite a lot these last few weeks so I wonder if it's an outcome of that.
Thank you again for the response :)