Breast lumpiness and lumps

Lumpiness:

• Can present on its own but is frequently associated with cyclical breast pain
• It is a manifestation of the cyclical changes that go on in the female breast during the menstrual years
• A variety of descriptive terms have been applied to it:
• Fibroadenosis
• Cystic mastopathy
• Fibrocystic disease
• Cystic mastitis

• All are merely descriptive of the changes seen to a varying degree on histological examination and do not give any insight into cause

Discrete single lump:

The commonest causes of a lump are:

• Fibroadenoma
• Cyst
• Very localised fibroadenosis

The fear uniting them all is the well-defined nature of the lump