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Thread: Obsessed with checking breasts

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2020
    Posts
    110

    Obsessed with checking breasts

    My HA has latched onto something else now.. I keep feeling a huge urge to keep checking my breasts as I’m so worried I’ll have missed something. The rates for breast cancer in 20s seems worryingly high and reading that survival is worse in younger patients has massively freaked me out!!

    I’m currently checking for around an hour at a time every day!

    I can feel all sorts of bumps if I use one finger and run it from right to left across my breast with a hard pressure.. is this normal? I can’t tell if it’s my bones because I’m laying on my back and I have a fairly small chest. When I go over the same areas like how you are supposed to (3 fingers circular motion) I can’t feel anything!

    I’ve also tried doing it with moisturiser and water and that makes it worse! Feels like you can feel millions of lumps but then you’ll look and it’s a mole or something on the surface that feels like a lump!

    Can anyone else feel lumpy muscle and bits on the skin while doing a breast exam? Would a bad lump be obvious?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    , , United Kingdom.
    Posts
    46,967

    Re: Obsessed with checking breasts

    Hi

    This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your issue.

    This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

    Please also read this post:

    http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=213239
    __________________
    Nicola

    “Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.” - Natalie Babbitt

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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    7,300

    Re: Obsessed with checking breasts

    I’m currently checking for around an hour at a time every day!
    Say ....whaaattttt......? Ok, well, let me tell you a fact, a truthful fact; You are putting yourself at huge risk of not noticing you have breast changes with this obsessive checking. The key to noticing anything abnormal is that it is a change from the normal and you have no 'normal' base-line to compare to, as you are feeling daily so would be unaware of any changes. There is a reason they say once a month after your period, and its because more frequently than that means it is pointless and higher risk of missing something. Also an hour a day of checking, poking and prodding, WILL inflame tissue and before you know you've got pains and internal tissue that is constantly 'traumatised'. Breast tissue isn't just jelly inside - there are ducts and fat pieces and all sorts of gubbings (Look up a diagram) so yes you can feel bits and bobs here and there, especially if you are pressing too hard (which you are). It sounds like at some point you have looked up the correct way to do breast examinations (on 'Breast Cancer Now' website if you haven't done so already). You have also discovered why they say to use 3 fingers flat in a circular motion, because if you poke with one finger then normal breast tissue feels like lumps and bumps ! Breast Cancer in your age group does happen, but it is rare, but yes it does happen and often it is a rarer type of Breast Cancer (I won't list types here, its not helpful) - you have been heightened in your vigilance and awareness so imagine it is something that is common and its not.
    Last edited by Carys; 09-08-20 at 20:38.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Posts
    756

    Re: Obsessed with checking breasts

    I've never had a issue with checking my breasts- but I used to be obsessive about checking my neck. A simply little trick my therapist gave me was to sit on my hands everytime I wanted to check. It's hard- but with a lot of effort it really helped me cut down on checking in the long run x

    Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Tapatalk

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
    Posts
    24

    Re: Obsessed with checking breasts

    I swear I could have written this post, even down to the age factor. I had a very bad phase of checking my breasts obsessively last year, which interestingly went away after I started a new job (maybe because I was suddenly too busy to check constantly), but thanks to the joys of never ending lockdown is starting to creep in again slowly. But to echo Carys, who was so helpful when I posted about this last year, breasts are not meant to feel like total jelly. I spoke to a GP before about a patch in my breasts that felt super grainy, and another time when I was convinced I was feeling a flat bean in my breast, both of which were normal. Interestingly, I couldn’t feel these issues again when I left my breasts alone for a while, so it’s totally possible to aggravate the tissue and make it more swollen and noticeable then it usually is. My advice would to you would be to stop and breathe every time you get an urge to check them, and repeat a mantra such as, “There is nothing wrong with me, it’s just my brain overthinking” or simply, “I trust myself” Please don’t waste your life away checking so much, it’s so easy to think you’ve missed something but you just have to believe that you haven’t. Hope this helps!

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