#breast lumps

Breasts can get funny things to happen to them based on hormone fluctuates. This includes changes in size and lumpiness/general tissue texture. And this is especially most common with menstruation and/or new hormonal birth control.

So that being said, if you are on HRT, there may be some changes that are normal. Consult your endocrinologist or prescribing doctor for what you're supposed to expect. You can also ask them for breast care, as they may either have the knowledge OR know someone safe to refer you to!

If you don't have them, it's also possible to go with your typical doctor that you are out to. General practitioners are trained in basic breast health which includes how to assess whether something is normal or whether you may need a specialist.

If you are not out to anyone, you may need to find a gender clinic or Planned Parenthood to be more assured you'd be safe.

And don't freak out - most lumps you find that ARE unusual are not cancerous. Lumps happen for a lot of reasons.

Breast lump resource (gendered language).

I'm having difficulty finding a resource on finding safe clinics for breast health for trans folks, so if anyone could provide one that would be greatly appreciated!

There are sometimes when lumps appear after top surgery. Consult your surgeon to make sure this isn't a buildup of fluids or a sign of infection/whether this is expected of their technique. You might also search for patient opinions on that surgeon, to see satisfaction rates and whether others had the same problems (unfortunately, some surgeons aren't the greatest and patients will wind up needing additional corrective surgery, which is a risk with most kinds of surgeries).

no change in how you’d get checked out- although if your breasts are very dense they might use alternate screening techniques (similar to how they would for cis women with dense breasts).  Since they don’t recommend self-breast exams any more, you don’t have to stress over feeling the difference between normal lumpy and checked out lumpy.   This article was written under the assumption you ARE doing exams (outdated), but generally gives you a good guideline of what abnormal lumps feel like.  

you should know that part of the reason that self-exams were stopped is that people were finding a lot of lumps that they felt were suspicious, and a lot of biopsies were being done, and mostly they were negative:  sometimes these negative tests caused harm: infection, allergic reactions to the meds they used etc.  when all was said and done, it was riskier to keep doing the increased rate of biopsy with the very few extra cancers they caught- there was no increased rate of cancer survival.  Said another way (with made-up numbers) if 100 people did the screening and 10 found lumps, 9 had non-cancerous lumps and 1 had cancer- 3 of those without cancer would be injured in some way by the testing.    If 100 people DID NOT do the screening, and 1 had cancer, it usually would be caught by traditional methods, and 0 would be injured by the screening.  

Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com For the sake of privacy, I chose not to divulge her precise connection to me until she permits, but I needed space to let my thoughts out a bit. She discovered a lump, kept quiet about it a bit hoping that it was period related and would go away. Rather than going away, it seems to have gotten bigger and warrants further investigation. The first biopsy came…

With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, let’s talk about early detection. Quite possibly the best way to catch breast cancer early is performing an at home, self-breast exam.

Breast self exam, or regularly examining your breasts on your own, can be an important way to find a breast cancer or fibroadenoma early, when it’s more likely to be treated successfully.

Regular self breast…