What causes breast pain in women?

Some girls begin to develop breasts at around the age of 9 to 13. At this time, the nipples slowly bulge and the breasts will feel swollen and painful. As menstruation gradually arrives and the body matures, this breast pain phenomenon may disappear. Some women will feel swelling and pain in their breasts, or slight tenderness, about a period of time before their period, and some women will also have nodules in their breasts. This phenomenon will disappear on its own after the menstrual period.

Women often experience breast pain at different times due to various factors. Since many women do not have enough understanding of breast pain or even have misunderstandings about it, once breast pain occurs, they suspect that they have breast cancer and become overly worried and anxious. In fact, most breast pain is caused by physiological or benign lesions, and can be effectively relieved by relaxing the mind, adjusting the diet or appropriate drug intervention.

There are different factors that cause breast pain. One type is physiological or mental factors that cause breast pain, and the other type is pathological breast pain.

About 2/3 of women experience breast pain or discomfort before menstruation, and the pain is relieved or disappears after menstruation. If the pain duration is short (such as no more than 1 week/month) or the pain level does not affect normal life and work, it is called mild to moderate breast pain, which is a physiological phenomenon. Generally, no medication is needed to treat this. Just keep a cheerful mood and relax your mind. Severe breast pain refers to the unbearable swelling and tingling that women feel when their breasts are subjected to slight vibrations, collisions, movements, or even when they are at rest, which affects their daily life, work, and sleep. In addition to paying attention to a light diet and avoiding spicy and irritating foods, severe breast pain also requires appropriate vitamin supplements or short-term use of Chinese medicine or Chinese patent medicine to relieve symptoms in order to break the "vicious cycle of pain."

In addition to the causes of breast pain introduced above, some women experience significant changes in estrogen levels in their bodies about 40 days after pregnancy. At this time, they may have mild breast hyperplasia, and their breasts will gradually increase in size. Breast pain can be felt, and this breast pain may even continue throughout the pregnancy. This phenomenon generally does not require special treatment and will resolve on its own after the pregnancy ends.