Checking for lumps
The good news is that breastfeeding lowers your risk of breast cancer, but this doesn’t mean that self-examination should stop. Also bear in mind that most breast cancers detected in breastfeeding mums originated years earlier. Self-exam can be tricky if you are pregnant or breastfeeding as your breasts keep changing and feel lumpier. However a lump that stays constant in size or enlarges should be checked by your doctor. Do not wait until you have given birth or stopped breastfeeding to get a suspicious lump checked out. It might be harmless, but it’s best to make sure.
Another factor to consider is that the accuracy of mammography is limited in certain cases. In three different studies, the percentage of breast cancers detected by a mammogram in pregnant women was between 62% -78%, against an average detection rate of 85% in non pregnant women. Mammography is not accurate with young women either, whether they are pregnant or not - the high density of their breasts make mammograms difficult to read.
Ultrasound, used before mammography to assess a lump, is considered safe. It can tell if a lump is a cyst or a solid mass, but it’s less accurate than a mammogram at distinguishing between a cancerous and non cancerous lump.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is also used to check breast lumps in pregnant women that appear on a mammogram like potentially cancerous – there is no known risk, but talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.
A biopsy, which is the removal of a small portion of a suspicious breast lump with a needle or by surgery, has proved to be accurate. In a large study of 331 pregnant or breastfeeding women, needle biopsies detected all the breast cancers. Again, discuss with your doctor all the implications of this procedure. If you are diagnosed with breast cancer, in some cases it is possible to have chemotherapy and give birth to a healthy baby if it’s not used in the first trimester, in other cases the treatment is delayed until later in the pregnancy or until the baby’s birth.
Signs of breast cancer during pregnancy
While between 70% and 80% of lumps detected during pregnancy are not malignant, you still need to see your doctor to make sure your lump is harmless. Having to undergo mammography can be worrying as only small studies on pregnant women have been conducted so far - these indicate that mammograms cause little or no harm for the baby if a lead shield is placed on the bump. However in order to develop adverse effects, the baby must be exposed to big amounts of radiation, so it’s best to discuss this with your doctor.Another factor to consider is that the accuracy of mammography is limited in certain cases. In three different studies, the percentage of breast cancers detected by a mammogram in pregnant women was between 62% -78%, against an average detection rate of 85% in non pregnant women. Mammography is not accurate with young women either, whether they are pregnant or not - the high density of their breasts make mammograms difficult to read.
Ultrasound, used before mammography to assess a lump, is considered safe. It can tell if a lump is a cyst or a solid mass, but it’s less accurate than a mammogram at distinguishing between a cancerous and non cancerous lump.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is also used to check breast lumps in pregnant women that appear on a mammogram like potentially cancerous – there is no known risk, but talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.
A biopsy, which is the removal of a small portion of a suspicious breast lump with a needle or by surgery, has proved to be accurate. In a large study of 331 pregnant or breastfeeding women, needle biopsies detected all the breast cancers. Again, discuss with your doctor all the implications of this procedure. If you are diagnosed with breast cancer, in some cases it is possible to have chemotherapy and give birth to a healthy baby if it’s not used in the first trimester, in other cases the treatment is delayed until later in the pregnancy or until the baby’s birth.
Breast cancer and breastfeeding
One of the benefits of breastfeeding is protecting mothers against breast cancer. In 2002 Cancer Research UK conducted a big study that compared the breastfeeding history of 50,000 women with breast cancer with around 100,000 women without. The study found that breastfeeding lowered the breast cancer risk by 4.3% for every year of breastfeeding. There was a 7% reduction in risk for each child born.
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