Breast cancer is the most common form of a malignant tumor in women. Due to the fact that the reasons for its occurrence are unclear, it is currently very difficult to prevent this serious illness. However, if cancer is detected in the early stages and the treatment started in a timely manner, most women are successfully cured. Therefore, the role of self-examination and the importance of it for the life of a woman, the realization of its life potential, is huge.
Content
Self-examination technique
Self-examination technique includes the inspection of the mammary glands in front of the mirror, tacking the mammary glands in the standing position and lying. It is recommended to carry out women older than 20 years once every 2 - 4 weeks. The most convenient thing is to do it in the same day of the menstrual cycle, after the bath.
An inspection of the mammary glands is carried out with good lighting, standing in front of the mirror, in three positions: Hands are omitted, raised upside down, on the belt. It should be installed, did not appear pathological signs: the retraction or empty of the skin area, retracting or deviation towards the nipple, shortening or deformation of the range of the range (pigmented area of the skin around the nipple), resize and conventional shape of one of the mammary glands, yellowish or bleeding from nipple, crust, wet or ulceration on the nipple, redness, irritation and swelling of the mammary glands.
Turning the mammary glands is performed in the standing position or lying on the back. It is better to carry out self-absorption in the lying position, while the breast muscles relax, in the dairy glands you can more clearly add compaction. Under the scapula of the examined side, you can put a small roller or pad to half the chest be a bit raised. The study is carried out in those provisions: the hand from the examined side raised up the head, to the side, along the body. Caution and gently prove each section of the breast with the pillows of the opposite hand. First check the outer half, ranging from the nipple and moving the duct and bottom to up. Then the internal half is checked, ranging from the nipple and moving inside to the sternum and from top to bottom. During persons, they determine whether there are no nodes and seals in the tissue of the mammary glands. Next, moderately squeezing between the fingers of Areol and the nipple, should determine whether there is no discharge from the nipple. And the latter prove the axillary depressures, over- and plug-in areas to identify increased lymph nodes.
If you discovered something
What if you discovered something?
Do not be afraid of spinning seals, they may have a natural character, appearing in the breast of women a week before menstruation. At this time, the chest increases, heavy, pain may appear, and small tubercles are tested in it, similar to orange grains. These are sweepy dairy glands, and they will dissolve how menstruation starts.
The appearance of seals in the mammary gland can be due to the increase in the tissue of the breast under the action of hormone estrogen. It can be the so-called fibroadoma or cystic fibrous mastopathy. Usually they are not hazardous and tend to reincarnate in cancer are no more than the breast fabric itself, but it is necessary to be examined to make cancer.
The suspicion of cancer occurs at the following distinctive features: unexpectedly appeared seal, often more dense than the rest, and sometimes still; nipple retraction or deviation from the usual position; discharge or leakage of blood from the nipple; An increase in regional lymph nodes (axillary, above and connectible). With any of the listed features, you must consult a doctor. Do not expect changes to themselves. The doctor himself examines the seal and, if any doubt has any doubt, will send you to a consultation to a specialist.
If it seems to be suspicious to a specialist, he will conduct a thorough examination, including a biopsy (if feasible) and may advise you to remove it. Such an operation must be carried out very quickly. After the histological study of remote education, you will be finalized regarding the nature of the tumor. Four of five tumors turn out to be completely safe.
Even if the tumor is malignant, with early detection of cancer, many surgeons do not see the need to complete breasts. Usually, one or more lymph node under the arm is also removed for the examination to make sure the disease did not extend further. If everything is in order, then simply remove the tumor in the chest and then conduct a course of radiotherapy.
Timely appeal to the doctor (as soon as you discovered a seal) - this is a chance for a complete cure and the ability to avoid an operation with which any woman is so hard to reconcile and psychologically, and emotionally.
If the doctor decides that the removal of the breast is the only way to you, do not fall in the spirit and ask him to discuss with you all the details of the operation. Surgeons with understanding belong to such fears and anxieties and will be able to dispel most of them. You can also talk to someone from women who have already suffered a similar operation, it will give you confidence in your abilities. Prostheses (artificial breasts) that you can wear after removal of the breast, differ in very good quality, are not noticeable under clothes, and some can even wear a swimsuit.
