How To Self Examine the Breasts to detect cyst or cancer?

Breast self examination video link :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw8Gx2LKWhA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcPgSRrIa88



How To Self Examine Your Breasts?


Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women, accounting for over 30 percent of all cancers women get. Early detection is essential for best treatment and regular mammograms after age 40 plus clinical breast exams (CBE) in the 20s and 30s at least every three years by a health professional, and annually after 40, are the keys to early detection.

Why Examine Your Breasts?

The American Cancer Society recommends that all young women over 20 be advised about the benefits and limitations of breast self examination and be told of the value of breast awareness so they can report any changes to their doctors. Some women can become “stressed” about doing the exam “right” or finding something actually normal, which has become a concern about BSE. It is very unlikely that a teenage girl will develop breast cancer.
So why examine your breasts?

Many adolescent specialists feel it’s appropriate to teach BSE to interested adolescents. First, adolescent girls need to discover what their breast tissue normally looks and feels like so that any changes will be easier to detect in the future. Second, breast self-exams can be an important health habit to learn and a wonderful way a teenage girl can begin taking care of herself and reduce later anxiety. In addition, there may be noncancerous breast problems that teen girls will be able to detect by doing breast self-exam, such as infections, cysts, unusual pain or irritation from sport activities.

When to Examine Your Breasts

The best time to do a breast self-exam is during the week after your menstrual period when the breasts are usually less tender or swollen. If your periods are irregular, then you should choose a day of each month (on the day that matches your birthday, for example) and do the exam each month on that day. While doing a breast self-exam, you should remember that it is normal to have some lumpiness or thickening in the breasts, especially during the adolescent years. It’s fine to do the exam regularly or just occasionally.
How to Examine Your Breasts (Courtesy of the American Cancer Society)
Lie down and place your right arm behind your head.
Use the finger pads (where fingerprints are taken) of the 3 middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in the right breast. Use small, dime-sized circular motions of the finger pads to feel the breast tissue.

Use 3 different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue. Light pressure is needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin; medium pressure to feel a little deeper; and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs. It is normal to feel a firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast, but you should tell your doctor if you feel anything else out of the ordinary.

Move around the breast in an up and down pattern starting at an imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the middle of the chest bone (breastbone). Be sure to check the entire breast area going down until you feel only ribs and up to the neck or collar bone. There is some evidence to suggest that the up-and-down pattern (sometimes called the vertical pattern) is the most effective pattern for covering the entire breast, without missing any breast tissue.

Repeat the exam on your left breast, putting your left arm behind your head and using the finger pads of your right hand to do the exam.

While standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing firmly down on your hips, look at your breasts for any changes of size, shape, contour, or dimpling, or redness or scaliness of the nipple or breast skin. (The pressing down on the hips position contracts the chest wall muscles and enhances any breast changes.)

Examine each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your arm only slightly raised so you can easily feel for lumps in this area.(Raising your arm straight up tightens the tissue in this area and makes it harder to examine).

The purpose of breast self-exam is to learn what is normal and notice any changes that occur. Report any changes or concerns to your doctor. Since breast cancer may be successfully treated if discovered and treated early, delaying the diagnosis of breast cancer does not change the diagnosis, it only worsens the outcome.


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