The feeling of chest pain is familiar to many women. Such pain is the most famous complaint of women during the menstrual cycle. Pain can be seen both in one mammary gland and in two. Sometimes the pain goes away for a few months and then comes back again. Why does the chest ache, what are the reasons for this phenomenon?
Types of chest pain
In many cases, the pain occurs for some time before menstruation. However, there are reasons why pain in the mammary glands is completely unrelated to critical days.
Chest pain can be classified into 2 types:
- Cyclic pain sensations that are completely interconnected with critical days. Usually, aching pain in the chest can occur in the second half of the cycle, and in the days before the period, these sensations can only intensify.
- Non-cyclic pain in the mammary glands is not associated with critical days, but has completely different causes.
According to statistics, two out of three women suffer from pain, which is associated with the ongoing processes in the body of a woman during menstruation. And only in one it is the result of the influence of other diseases, injuries andothers
Cyclic Pain
This manifestation of pain is most often observed in women between the ages of thirty and fifty. Cyclic pain is not recorded in women who are in the menopausal period, when menstruation stops.
Manifestations of pain in the form of minor discomfort for some time before critical days is considered normal. Only in some cases, the process is accompanied by a sharp pain that lasts about 7-14 days. The most difficult moment is the period a few days before the onset of menstruation. At this time, a woman may feel her chest aches before menstruation, and sometimes it swells. With the onset of menstruation, the woman's condition returns to normal.
The main cause of pain is hormonal changes, to which the mammary glands are very sensitive. Cyclic pain is not associated with any disease, so they do not require special care. In case of acute pain, symptoms can be reduced with the help of painkillers ("Ibuprofen", "Paracetamol") or ointments with an analgesic effect.
Taking contraceptives containing non-natural hormones can aggravate a woman's condition, increase such pain. Some types of blood pressure medications have a similar effect.
When conventional drugs do not help relieve pain, the doctor may prescribe special drugs that counteract the releasehormones ("Danazol", "Tamoxifen"). Such treatment can reduce the level of the hormone estrogen, so it should be permanent. Drugs can cause many side effects and may be prescribed by a doctor for acute pain as a last resort.
Non-cyclic types of pain
Pain of this nature can occur continuously or intermittently. Pain of this type is not associated with hormonal changes, and most often occurs in women over the age of forty. When a woman's chest aches, the factors that cause this condition may be as follows:
- mastopathy;
- inflammatory processes, infections;
- breast cancer;
- possible structural abnormalities of the chest;
- stretching chest muscles.
Before the appointment of treatment, a woman undergoes an examination that helps to identify the exact cause of the pain.
Sore and aching breasts during pregnancy
The main cause of pain in the mammary glands during pregnancy is an increase in the volume of glandular cells that will perform the functions of secreting milk.
From the first days of pregnancy, a woman's breasts become sensitive, and in some cases painful. The appearance of pain in the chest and an increase in its size is one of the signs of pregnancy.
All changes that occur in the mammary glands require activation of the blood circulation process. The chest fills with blood, and the tendency to accumulate fluid in the body during pregnancy causes,respectively, swelling and pain.
During pregnancy, chest pain is not uncommon. The mammary gland usually aches for everyone, but these sensations disappear by the end of the first trimester (10-12 weeks). A significant increase and a tingling sensation in the chest of a woman is felt at the 20th week of pregnancy. This is due to the preparation of the mammary glands for the birth of a child and the upcoming lactation. The ongoing processes do not cause severe pain. In the event of such sensations in one breast, a woman should definitely seek help from her gynecologist to exclude processes not related to pregnancy.
Which symptoms should a woman see a doctor for?
A woman should make an appointment with a doctor if the following symptoms are present:
- feeling that the chest aches persists even after the onset of menstruation;
- pain in the form of burning and squeezing;
- pain is localized in one part of the chest;
- pain does not stop, but intensifies over time;
- in addition to pain, knots or its deformation are felt in the chest, redness of the mammary glands, the occurrence of fever;
- pain in a woman is observed constantly for two weeks;
- pain interferes with her daily activities, causing insomnia and irritation.
At the doctor's appointment
You should consult a doctor in case of persistent pain in the mammary glands. If the doctor does not find any seals, then further examination may not be necessary. For women over 40 years of age, a specialist usually recommends a mammogram. If seals are found during the examination, then a biopsy is performed (study of tissue particles under a microscope).
Treatment will depend entirely on the causes that caused this pain and the result of the examination. When the chest hurts and aches, such sensations can cause various diseases, one of which is mastopathy.
What is this?
Mastopathy is a disease in which fibrocystic growths form in the breast. According to statistics, about 75-80% of women under the age of 40 have diseases of the mammary glands, united under the general name "mastopathy".
The disease is widespread. In women with mastopathy, the risk of breast cancer increases by 3-5 times.
Causes of occurrence
Hormonal disorders in a woman can occur for the following reasons:
- liver disorders;
- stop feeding an infant with adequate lactation;
- irregular sexual relations;
- ovarian disease;
- thyroid disease;
- stress situations;
- pathological condition of the pituitary gland.
All these reasons affect the hormonal background of a woman, which leads to the occurrence of mastopathy. There is no genetic predisposition to it.
Hormone imbalance occurs when estrogen and progesterone levels change.
Such an imbalance occurs in all women who have given birth little or not at all. Mastopathy does not appear suddenly, within a few years in the chest, in violation of physiological processes, foci of epithelial tissues arise and grow. They compress the ducts, interfere with the normal outflow of secretion into them and deform the lobules of the mammary glands.
When women have mastopathy, there is a feeling that the chest aches, as well as a feeling of fullness and squeezing in the mammary gland. In addition, nausea, lack of appetite, and abdominal pain may be present. The disease requires constant monitoring by a doctor and systematic treatment.
Why does my chest ache and how can I help myself?
When a problem occurs repeatedly before the start of the cycle, there is nothing that can be done here. You can prepare and purchase underwear, the size of which is designed for an increased breast size. This must be done without fail, because squeezing negatively affects the mammary glands.
If there is a suspicion of pregnancy, a woman should definitely contact a gynecologist to refute or confirm her assumptions.
Women should constantly examine their breasts to detect the appearance of seals or nodules. In case of detection of possible pathologies, it is better to make an appointment with a doctor to rule out oncology.
Medicines for this symptom are not prescribed, so a woman needs to learn to live with it.
Doctors do not recommend women to self-medicate. Application of variousalcohol compresses and warming the chest can have a negative effect on the entire body.
All drugs should be prescribed by a specialist after examining a woman's breasts and taking into account her condition.
