Swollen, Painful Breasts

I hope someone can help put my mind at ease on this one. I have noticed that my breasts seem to be swollen and extra heavy. I am a busty woman and have been since I was a teen. However, this is the most breast discomfort I have ever been in. I thought the intense shoulder pain I had was due to the age of my bras. So I ordered new ones. I wore one of the new bras today and had the same pain. I can not simply take off my bra. I must gently lower my breast or the pain is enough to make me cry out. I have read in another thread that breast size seems to increase. Some women reported a cup size increase. I pray this is a temporary condition for me as I can not take another letter. For the first time in my life, I would actually seriously consider breast reduction surgery. If anyone else has a similar situation, please share your experience with me. My shoulders can not take much more.

Hi It appears from your signature that you kept your ovaries? Their blood supply is compromised as a result of removing the uterus, so their function can be affected. Sometimes when this happens the resulting imbalance can come in the form of estrogen dominance, which tends to cause breasts to get swollen and sore. You may want to talk with your DR about this.

You could also ask about using some progesterone cream, which tends to counter the effect of estrogen dominance and reduce the swelling and discomfort. You can read more about this in Dr. Lee's book "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer" (which is not only about cancer).

I hope this helps.
s,
-Linda

I have good news to report on the breast issue. I have had no more problems, thank God. I was in severe pain the month I posted the problem. Since then, the swelling has gone down and I have not had the pain that I had then. I hope this continues.

I am not on hormone therapy as I was able to keep one of my ovaries. I trust this problem was simply my body adjusting to the surgery.

Take care ladies.

I am also large breasted and have relied on Evening primrose oil capsules to reduce tenderness for years. It will take 1-2 weeks for it to get into your system. After my hysterectomy my breast were really swollen and I began taking over the counter progesterone and evening primrose oil. This helped with these issues but I have lumps that are being "followed". I just had another diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound and "they think the lumps are benign". I felt funny since they did not know and I have them in both breast. I go back in 4 months for more test.

The good news is that evening primrose and Natural Woman progesterone cream from Hystersisters really helped with the swelling and tenderness. I was not expecting that after the hysterectomy.

Bless you bunches,

Tonya