MedHive Editorials: SELF BREAST EXAMINATION EXPLAINED. WHY? AND HOW?
Hey you! permit me to stop you on your scrolling tracks to read this.
Seriously! You didn’t know you should check your breast monthly? and it is just as easy as taking your bath and combing your hair. The simple art of self breast examination is so life saving so many suspicious breast lumps have been caught early and has lead to saving lots of lives from breast cancer.
So, now you know, please check! Not tomorrow, I mean today.
It’s that serious.
According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer is the most common cancer globally with around 2.3 million new cases each year , 70 % of this mortalities occur in resource poor settings. 28, 380 new breast cancer cases were reported in Nigeria as at 2020 making 22.7% of all new cancer cases.
October is Breast cancer awareness month. This month, many communities ensure that the message on breast cancer is passed down to the grassroots.
Various risk factors like increasing age, genetic mutations, family history, smoking, exposure to radiation therapy increases the chances of breast cancer . However, certain women do not have the risk factors but end up with breast cancer.
Can breast cancer be detected early?
Yes, self breast examination and a mammogram can help screen for breast cancer early. This is quite important because early detection leads to timely intervention and comprehensive treatment.
While checking the breast, look out for abnormal swellings, pain, hard craggy feeling and abnormal sized breasts.
For those with breast cancer, you do not have to go through it alone. Talk to someone who understands just how you feel. You are loved and your feelings are valid.
How to carry out a Self Breast Examination
Although everyone should do a breast exam because both male and female can have it, we will be emphasising on the female breast examination, which is actually not so much different from that of the male.
There are two approaches to this.
- Standing before the mirror.
Here you stand in front of a mirror with your breast exposed and then press down your hands on your hips to charge the muscles of the chest.
The goal here is to inspect the breast for any changes such as
Changes.
also raise one of your arms slightly and examine the underarm. Feel that underarm for any changes or lumps. Do the same thing with your other underarm.
Here are the things you are looking out for;
- Chnage in size, shape, or contour
- Dimpling of your breast skin
- Redness or scaliness
- Any discharge from your nipple
- You are to lie down on your bed with the hand of the breast side to be examined folded upwards. This will help flatten the breast mass and make it easier for anything foreign to be easily detected.
Now, use the pads of the 3 middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in your right breast Move your fingers in coin circles up and down your breast while applying pressure. You can move your fingers in clockwise (to the right) or counterclockwise (to the left) circles. But we prefer going clockwise by dividing your breast with two imaginary lines int 4 quadrants and starting from the inside to the outer.
The fingers to use
You are to use different levels of pressure as you increase it till you can feel your skin just touching the ribs. Use light pressure to feel the tissue closest to your skin. Use medium pressure to feel a little deeper. Use firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to your chest and ribs. It’s normal to feel thicker tissue or a ridge of firm tissue under the lower curve of each breast.
Finally you can also do a down up stroke with your hands in other to sweep through which can catch those things you probably missed earlier
If you observe any mass or lump, please see a Doctor fast.
To examine the breast, you may have to be very patient and attentive not to miss out on any step or miss anything you could have caught. Remember, the aim is to detect early and so we have to do it. Its self made, not expensive and not
Contributor's Corner
Eno Sunday is a believer with passion for the youth and teenagers. She believes young people can live a life without mistakes if they're well guided from the start, hence her intense passion for teenagers.
A medical doctor, trained at the University of Ibadan, she is currently a Senior Registrar in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.
She belongs to a non-profit organization, Jewel Haven Initiative, where she serves as the zonal director for Kwara State, and has through this platform, organized various outreaches in areas like self-discovery for teens, premarital sex and its consequences, and the effects of substance abuse, amongst others.
She is a member of the Child Evangelism Ministry and the Teenager Outreach Ministry.
She is happily married and is blessed with children.
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