Breast Strain - Strained Chest - Causes and Symptoms

Mastodynia or mastalgia is the technical term for chest pain. Women, but sometimes men, suffer from this. The breasts are uncomfortable, they feel heavy and hurt. Many women suffer from it each month during their menstruation, young and old, with the tension often increasing with age. With menopause, this pain usually ceases.

contents

• The female breast
• Cause # 1: Menstruation
• Breast tenderness outside the period
• Pregnancy and tense breasts
• Breast cancer a cause?
• menopause
• Harmless causes
• Breast tenderness in men
• What helps?
• When to the doctor?

The female breast

The mammary gland tissue of the woman is much more complex than that of the man and changes in life several times. Hormonal extremes such as puberty, pregnancy, menstruation, premenopause and menopause appear in the breasts as a feeling of tension.

Chest tension can cause pain. (Image: SENTELLO / fotolia.com)

Cause # 1: Menstruation

Most women feel tension in their chest during the period, and some of their breasts are seriously hurting. Eyelids, hands, feet and legs can also swell. Some women are afraid of their bleeding month after month because of these complaints.

In the first half of the cycle, the estrogens set the tone, in the second half progesterone, the luteal hormone, comes to the fore. This hormonal exchange ensures that it stores water in the breasts and causes pain.

The hormone prolactin, which occurs more frequently in the second cycle phase, and the glandular cells set to form milk, also changes the breast tissue. It is supplied with more blood, the gland cells grow and produce secretions.

Some women are particularly sensitive to prolactin, which is likely to increase chest pain, and is also thought to be a cause of breast and chest pain in men whose pituitary gland also expels this hormone.

Breast tenderness outside the period

Out-of-period hormonal changes can trigger both pain and hormonal extremes during menstruation. This is especially true for the anti-baby pill. Breast tenderness is a typical side effect of estrogen-stressed pills. But also contraceptive sticks under the skin that contain progestin can cause pain.

Pregnancy and tense breasts

The mammary glands grow enormously during pregnancy and lactation. Now they produce the foremilk, and when the baby sucks, the breast milk. It form the so-called Montgomery glands, which give off an oil that keeps the nipples soft during breastfeeding.

Tensions and a hardened breast are not a disease at this time, but a normal biological process.

However, the woman must be careful to avoid a congestion that can lead to a breast infection. Hygiene, a well-balanced diet and a nursing technique in which the milk flows unhindered are important.

A congestion first shows as severe pain in the affected breast, as local hardening and as "Gnubbel". Are the pains big, is the breast reddened and heated, are there muscle aches and fever? Then it is almost certainly a bacterial infection.

Breast cancer a cause?

If you complain of breast tensions, many women fear that you have breast cancer. Screening can never hurt, but: Pain is not a common symptom of breast cancer.

menopause

During menopause, the level of sex hormones decreases. The breast tensions of menstruation cease. In women of all ages but can develop a breast infection, usually as an infection with bacteria.

The level of progesterone decreases continuously during the menopause, and after the menopause, the female body does not produce the hormone anymore. This is what estrogen dominates, because the ovaries do not produce progesterone - but estrogen does.

Progesterone drives the water and therefore inhibits water retention in the tissue, as it can trigger estrogen. If there is no progesterone left, the estrogen may accumulate more water, causing pain and tension in the chest.

When the glandular tissue returns during the menopause, cysts can develop, which also lead to tensions.

Outside menstruation

Breast tenderness - and pain outside menstruation can be divided into:

- I duct dilatation
- Treatment with sex hormones
- Breast inflammation (mastitis)
- cysts
- fat necrosis
- breast cancer
- drugs

Harmless causes

Breast tension in women, however, can also have harmless causes: for example, a bra can not fit well or be made of material that irritates the skin and causes pain.

Breast tenderness in men

In men, tense breasts are less common than in women, and most often affect men who have breast swelling (gynecomastia), hormonal disorders, or other conditions.

An overview of the causes:
- Physiological gynecomastia
- Pseudogynaecomastia in obese (breast gets bigger through adipose tissue)
- Breast formation due to sex hormones, either congenital or anabolic
- Cysts and lumps in the chest
- breast cancer
- alcohol
- Hormone-like substances in lavender oil

What helps?

Extracts of the monk's pepper release the messenger dopamine and thus compensate for the hormone levels of milk-producing prolactin. This relieves the tension, but it takes several weeks for the plant to work.

Massages with lavender or rose oil are also recommended, as are cold wraps with cottage cheese or preparations with St. John's wort.

With fresh herbs, only the leaves are often used. But in many plants, the flowers are edible. These are even particularly tasty. (Image: Dionisvera / fotolia.com)

Mental stress affects the hormone levels and can thus promote breast tenderness. Relaxation exercises are suitable for re-leveling the mirror, ie autogenic training, yoga or meditation.

When to the doctor?

If the chest changes or hurts, you should always go to the doctor. Most of the causes are not dangerous, but chest and nipple pain can indicate heart problems or breast cancer. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)