There are 10 symptoms but what I want to be very clear about is that these symptoms don't mean that you have breast cancer. These are warning signs, so that if you notice one or more of these then you get it checked professionally. The other thing I want to say about it is that it is so important for women to do their own monthly self-exam, because that's when they notice, if there is a change in their breast. Some women I talk to will never touch their own breast, because they are afraid they will find something. So my attitude is that when they do their checking, they are checking to see that nothing has changed. If something has changed, then they can go to their doctor who can also do an exam. Men also have these same things; there are over 140,000 new cases of breast cancer in men a year. Some symptoms would include a lump, a hard knot or thickening, swelling, warmth, redness or darkening, and change in size or shape. Dimpling or puckering of the skin, or a rash. Lots of rashes are other things, but it's a symptom that is often ignored by doctors. If somebody goes and there is a wart or a rash around the nipple and the doctor will think that it is nothing, but it can be something really major. Doctors are less aware of it than we are. Itching or scaling on the nipple, pulling in of the nipple or other breast area, a sudden discharge from the nipple or a new pain in that area are all symptoms. Another symptom that some of my clients had mentioned that I have never seen on the list is a very full heavy feeling in the breast like your bra don't fit as if the breast just feels heavy. Often clients have reported that even though they told their medical practitioner about one or more of their symptoms, they have been told it's nothing. That might be true, but my advise is if it doesn't seem right, go to another doctor, get another opinion, go to a nurse practitioner; keep checking. I have heard many times where people who had got mammograms get back negative test results. Everything is fine, but the woman says "no, there is something wrong" and two years later they finally found it, she does have breast cancer and by then it's stage 2 or 3. So women really need to be proactive and their own advocate on this.
