Fibrocystic Breasts

[SkhyeMoncrief]

If you have twinges, stabbing pain, or burning pain in your breasts, you most likely have what I've been diagnosed with... Fibrocystic Breasts. The pain apparently intensifies when you PMS and subsides after you stop menstruating. It is NOT cancer but is obvious for the cysts you can feel in your mammary system.  Some cysts can go cancerous. Your cysts need to be monitored by a professional.

Fibrocystic Breast is caused by the monthly cycle of hormones we women "experience." The explanation is quite simple and scientific. http://www.medicinenet.com/fibrocystic_breast_condition/article.htm Is the best website I found.

The treatment is simple yet aggravating. I had to ditch caffeine/chocolate. Within two days of doing so, the pain vanished. If I slack on my urges and eat chocolate, the pain arises a bit. So, caffeine is poisonous to me. I also started using:

*Vitamin E

*Evening Primrose Oil

*A Multi Vitamin

*a B-complex supplement in the morning--to replace the caffeine

*a good decaf coffee for my morning ritual--Seattle's Best tastes incredible

The cysts are supposed to vanish when your body flushes the water it retained! Ok, I use water with lemon to help with that process. If the cysts are painful, they can be aspirated. I haven't had that treatment yet. They say the best treatment is by diet of which I have discovered for myself.

Diagnosis: mammogram, ultrasound, and ob/gyn appointment

Don't wait. See someone. I actually went to a local family practice clinic because it was going to take 3 weeks to get in to see the ob/gyn. But I was terrified because I found a lump and my personal ob/gyn had retired without telling us--family emergencies.

Skhye

 

[JacquieRogers]

Sep. 6, 2007 at 1:15 AM

Well-written article, Skhye!

 But NO COFFEE??? :faint:  How about rum?

[SkhyeMoncrief]

Sep. 6, 2007 at 4:27 AM

Since I've learned that drinking alcohol makes me at higher risk for breast cancer, I've cringed at the bit of rum that helped me fall asleep at bedtime... I answered 50% yes to the questionnaire to determine if I'm at risk for breast cancer. Not good! Excluding the alcohol knocks me back to the okay zone. Two weeks of testing for fibrocystic breast and cancer left me with a new appreciation for life. It was interesting to find 60% of women in our culture have fibrocystic breast. Some have a greater occurrence of cysts. Others have pain. Pain is good. That means you don't have cancer. But the elevated occurrence of the "syndrome" makes me think we are a culture hooked on caffeine. And I ate 6-8 milk duds two days in a row. That little bit of chocolate set off my pain again! So, caffeine is poisonous to me. Famous last words: don't drink a gallon of coffee a day for or a year or you'll pay!

(Original Poster)

[iltemprd]

Sep. 13, 2007 at 1:13 PM My mom and I both have this.  I absolutely loved my nurse practitioner in another state.  She told me all of these things and I rarely have pain anymore.  As a matter of fact, even a little caffeine now makes me really feel bad.  Well written!