What Causes Breast Pain Other Than Menstrual or Hormonal Changes?
One-third of breast pain is “noncyclical”-that is, it has nothing to do with the menstrual or hormonal cycles in your body. Breast pain should be evaluated initially to exclude benign lesions of the breast, such as cysts, fibroadenomas, and other such problems that require aspiration or surgery. The broad term for many unrelated types of benign, noncyclical breast pain is MDAIDS-for mammary duct associated inflammatory disease sequence. Duct ectasia is one common benign problem that falls under this umbrella. It involves inflammation of the breast ducts, which can lead to scarring, which can in turn cause bad, localized breast pain. Another name for this problem is plasma cell mastitis (and others use the term periductal mastitis as well). A terrible cycle can develop in which the ducts fill with fluid, which leads to inflammation around the ducts, which in turn leads to scarring, all causing pain and further fluid buildup. Sometimes, it looks like an infection, and antibiotics are giv
