Breast pain, or mastalgia, is a common problem. Many women suffer breast pain so severe that it affects their lifestyles, marriages and sexual relationships, and even prevents some from hugging their children.
If no obvious physical cause is found, the problem is all too often dismissed, without appropriate empathy and reassurance, as a normal physiological effect. A careful, sympathetic clinical approach, however, followed by reassurance after examination, will be sufficient treatment for most.
Symptoms of Mastalgia usually presents as a heaviness or discomfort in the breast or as a pricking or stabbing sensation. The pain may radiate down the inner arm when the patient is carrying heavy objects or when the arm is in constant use, as in scrubbing floors.
Key facts and checkpoints