Introduction to breast self-examination

Breast self-examination and understanding how to check for breast cancer at home are important for those who may be experiencing symptoms of breast cancer or want they may want to ensure that they are not facing any kinds of health-related issues. If the patient has a strong family history of breast cancer or other types of cancers, consult a suitble doctor or medical professional. The doctor or medical professional may then be able to recommend a blood test which may to help identify any form of mutations in BRCA or other genes being passed through your family. A suitable doctor will refer you to a genetic counselor, who will review your family health history and discuss the benefits, risks, and limitations of genetic testing to help you make the right or necessary decisions. 

Preliminary self-examination of breast cancer

How To Check Breast Cancer At Home?

Before following the breast self-examination steps and understanding how to check breast cancer at home, you must be aware of some things and understand what may or may not be generally considered abnormal for your body. If you notice any lump or anything that appears abnormal in your breasts, your doctor may need to look at this immediately. While self-breast examination steps can be useful when doing a breast cancer test at home, if you have already noticed some abnormalities in your breasts, you must try and get professional medical advice as soon as you can. 

While you may note that most breast lumps are not usually cancer and may be caused due to some non-cancerous cause, such as a cyst, or fibro adenoma, among others, it is still good to get medical advice if you observe or feel anything that may be abnormal near or on your breast region. Lumps may come and go, while others may change in shape, size, and texture concerning a woman’s menstrual cycle. There could also be some kinds of lumps that may be very harmful and pose a huge threat to a person’s health.

Suppose you can follow breast examination steps and detect breast cancer early on. In that case, you may benefit from several treatment options, increased survival, and a better quality of life while receiving breast cancer treatment and even after being cured. The early detection of cancer will provide the patient suffering from it the best chance of an effective and successful treatment. When Breast cancer is found early, the malignant or cancerous tumor may be small in size and would not have spread yet. In this situation, cancer may be in its early stages and has not expanded far into a person’s body, causing severe problems. This kind of cancer may be much easier to treat successfully.

Breast self-examination steps 

One may want to understand the breast self-examination steps or how to check for breast cancer at home if they may be worried they could be suffering from it. If you may like to know the steps of breast self-examination. You must follow these self-breast examination steps. You may consult your doctor or a suitable medical professional if you have any kinds of questions relating to any step of breast self-examination. 

A breast self-exam or the breast self-examination steps may be an important way to detect breast cancer early. When cancers are detected early, a patient may be able to be afforded with the necessary treatment in time and will have more chances of surviving the symptoms of cancer and the side effects of the treatments of cancer, which can often be debilitating for a person. It has been observed that performing a breast self-exam in combination with other methods for screening cancer may increase the odds of early detection of breast cancer in a person, which could save their life.

Breast self-examination steps are

A visual exam of the breasts

A Visual exam may be carried out when following how to check breast cancer at home, which may involve observing any abnormalities relating to the size, shape, and discharge of a person’s breasts. Every person may experience different kinds of symptoms. Still, when you visually examine your breasts, you may look for things that reveal that you are facing some abnormal problem, such as breast cancer.

Follow these steps to visually examine your breast when doing the necessary step of breast self-examination :

  1. Stand topless in front of your mirror and keep your hands at your sides.
  2. Observe your breasts for any of the following:
  • Any changes in size, shape, or symmetry of the breast or breasts as compared to how they may have looked before  
  • Any dimpling or dents in the skin of the breasts 
  • Nipples that may be inverted or look different than what they looked previously
  • Any puckering or wrinkling of the skin of the breast 
  • Any ridges at the bottom of the breasts that may be asymmetrical in their shapes 

3. Keep your hands stright down the sides of your body and make these observations. You may then make the same observations with your arms above your head and once again after lifting one breast at a time.

A physical exam of the breasts 

One may want to know how to examine breast cancer physically. A physical exam for the self-examination of breast cancer may be an exam that is a step ahead of a visual exam when you follow how to check for breast cancer at home. This exam may involve examining your breasts with your hands and not just looking at them for abnormalities you can see. The physical examination for how to check for breast cancer at home may reveal more abnormalities with a person’s breasts as a visual exam as you may be able to feel if anything is unusual in that region.

After visually inspecting each breast, follow these signs to examine it with your hands when doing the step of breast self-examination:

  1. Use pads of your fingers and not the tips of your finger, and then observe your breasts while lying down and once again when you are in the shower. The water and soap that are in the shower will make it easier for your fingers to pass over your skin smoothly.
  2. You may then use varying pressure and massage your fingers over your breasts in a circular way after starting at the nipple.
  3. You must reach the top of the breast near the collarbone, the center by your breastbone, and the sides near your armpits. You must do these actions while putting one arm over your head and massaging the breast with your other hand.
  4. You may then finally squeeze your nipples to check for any discharge.

Suppose you have noticed any discoloration, lumps, discharge, inverted nipples or anything else that is unusual while observing or doing the actions you may follow above while doing the steps of breast self-examination. In this case, you must try and contact your doctor or a suitable medical professional as soon as possible. The medical professional must be qualified to be consulted and guide you about the same.  

Do you need to do other tests if you do breast self-examination?

We recognize that doing breast self-examination or steps of breast self-examination could be a useful and important screening tool. It may give a person some answers for their health condition without approaching a doctor or a suitable medical professional. 

This is why breast self-examination may be useful, especially when it is combined with the following kind of tests and examinations:

  • Some kinds of physical exams may be conducted regularly by a suitable doctor or suitable medical professional
  • Mammography, which is an x-ray imaging method that is used to examine people for any kinds of symptoms of breast cancer and is used for the early detection of cancer and other breast diseases
  • An ultrasound, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), or both of these tests 

Each of these screening tools work differently and has strengths and weaknesses. Breast self-exam or the self-breast examination steps is a convenient, no-cost tool you can use monthly and at any age as part of your overall breast cancer screening strategy. Every screening tool that has been mentioned has different kinds of perks as well as some disadvantages. It will usually be considered the best idea to use each of these screening tools, tests, and examinations in combination to receive the best results and properly confirm the kind of health issue or disease a person may be suffering from, and in this case, properly carry out a self-examination for breast cancer and self-breast examination steps with all the other necessary tests that may help in doing so.

Is breast self-examination useful in diagnosing a person with breast cancer?

A person may want to follow the breast self-examination steps to do a self-examination for breast cancer. In the last few years of researching breast cancer, there has been a lot of debate among doctors, medical professionals, and medical experts about how useful breast self-examination is in detecting breast cancer early on. It has also been discussed how breast cancer examination may lead to faster and less debilitating treatment and cure a person. 

In 2008, a study of nearly 400,000 women in Russia and China reported that breast self-examination does not have any meaningful effects on breast cancer rates of survival and may even cause harm to people by prompting unnecessary removal and examination of suspicious tissue. This removal of tissue that may be done for examination is called a biopsy. 

In response to studies that have been done in this area and others that may be like it, there has been a ton of controversy and confusion as to what one should and not do. The American Cancer Society has even stopped recommending breast self-exam to people as a screening tool. They have recommended different screening methods to those with an average risk of breast cancer.

Who may need to learn self breast-examination steps?

There may be some kinds of situations and people that need to look out for symptoms of breast cancer. These situations or people are increasing in age: those with a personal history of breast-related conditions, those who have any kind of personal history of breast cancer, and those with some family history of breast cancer. These inherited genes increase the risk of cancers, radiation exposure, people that are obese, having early menstruation or late menopause, having a first child at an older age, never had a pregnancy, having postmenopausal hormone therapy, consumption of alcohol, being physically inactive, long-term use of oral contraceptives, dense breasts, smoking.

How may self-examination of breast cancer be different for different people

One may carry out self-examination for breast cancer by following the steps of breast self-examination, but have different results. When examining breast cancer, the breast self-examination steps are only general. When following how to check breast cancer at home, you must keep an open mind and try to understand that everybody has different bodies, even though there may be certain observations that one may make to diagnose themselves with this form of cancer.

Equipment needed to carry out a breast cancer test at home 

One may need some equipment to carry out a breast cancer test at home and do the Steps of breast self-examination. The equipment needed to carry out a breast cancer test at home for a self-examination for breast cancer when trying to understand how to test breast cancer at home is essential to carrying out this test properly. 

The equipment one may need are:

  • A mirror 
  • A bathroom with a shower

Staging for breast cancer

After the doctor has diagnosed breast cancer, the extent or stage of cancer has to be established. The stage helps determine the prognosis and the best treatment options. The stage of the cancer may be determined after surgery. Not everyone will require all of these tests and procedures. The doctor may do the appropriate tests based on specific circumstances and consider the various kind of symptoms the patient may be experiencing. This may be different for different patients. Differing doctors may also have different approaches depending on their medical opinion and the health of the person being tested and checked for breast cancer symptoms. 

Various Tests and procedures used to stage breast cancer:

  • Blood tests that may be done for a person, such as the complete blood count of the person that may have breast cancer and is being checked for it 
  • Mammogram of the other breast of the person that does not display any abnormality to look for some signs or symptoms of cancer
  • A breast MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging)

Breast cancer stages may range from 0 to IV. Stage 0 indicates cancer that may b be in its earliest stages and is non-invasive or contained within the milk ducts of the breasts of the person. Stage IV of breast cancer, also known as metastatic breast cancer, will indicate that it has spread to other parts in the body of the person and invades some parts. The process of breast cancer staging also considers cancer’s grade, the presence of markers of tumor,such as the receptors for estrogen, progesterone, and HER2, as well as proliferation factors.

Is knowing how to diagnose breast cancer at home sufficient for a breast cancer diagnosis?

For a multitude of reasons, a person may want to know how to detect breast cancer at home and do a self-examination of breast cancer. This may be because the symptoms of breast cancer are not yet very prominent, there is a lack of a medical facility near where the person lives, financial constraints, etc. While this may be useful for detecting several symptoms of breast cancer, breast self-examination at home and knowing how to check for breast cancer at home may not be enough. After concluding that you may be experiencing breast cancer symptoms after doing a breast self-examination and learning how to check for breast cancer at home, it is important in ordert to be as safe as possible, that you try to visit a doctor or a suitable medical professional and discuss what to do next. The doctor or medical professional that is trained in this area may be able to guide you and tell you the necessary steps after detecting breast cancer symptoms on learning how to check breast cancer at home.

What are the risks of a breast self-exam?

There is no actual medical risk involved with doing a breast self-examination. In case you do find a lump in your breast, you may feel worried and fear that you may suffer from a malignant tumor, but this is not always true. It may be important to remember not all lumps in the body or breasts of a person are cancer, and that there may sometimes be some kinds of lumps that could appear in a person’s breasts are not malignant or cancerous and will not cause severe harm to them. Other benign conditions may cause them, and they may not have to be worried about. Even if you do have to receive some medical care or medical treatment for it, the treatment may not be as severe as a treatment for cancer which could involve chemotherapy, radiation therapy surgery, among other kinds of treatments that could be very severe and often detrimental to the quality of life of a person. 

One may note that self-examination of breast cancer, clinical breast exams, and mammograms at hospitals and other suitable medical facilities may often be reserved for people who may be having a higher risk of suffering from breast cancer and is not open to everyone, which is why there may be a lot of people may opt for self-examination of breast cancer or follow breast self-examination steps to see if they may have symptoms of this themselves at home.

Why may it be helpful to learn how to check for breast cancer at home?

Learning how to screen for certain diseases and health conditions at home may be a good idea before you approach any suitable doctor or medical professional at a hospital or medical facility to check if you have or are suffering from any kind of suspected health issue or disease. Checking for diseases such as breast cancer and learning the steps of self-breast self-examination for self-examination for breast cancer so that you may be able to deduce to some extent if you have or are suffering from it or not may give you some clarity to an extent. 

It may further also helpful to learn how to check for breast cancer at home as it may help to reduce the pressure that the medical system, doctors, and other medical professionals are burdened with if people who have first properly checked for the symptoms come to get a proper diagnosis done so they may be able to confirm and find out if they are suffering from that disease, which in this case is breast cancer. The doctor or medical professional may then be able to consult the patient on their symptoms and not waste time looking at other patients who have not checked for the symptoms or are probably not even suffering from the disease.

Conclusion

A person may be able to conclude if they are suffering from at least some symptoms of breast cancer if they know how to test for it at home. This is a simple, convenient, and economical way to do this. It also increases the understanding of a person concerning how their body works and may be useful in the future to check for breast cancer symptoms even if the person checking themselves for breast cancer at home does not have it or is not experiencing any symptoms of it right now. By doing this, the person can approach a doctor or the necessary medical authority to receive treatment for breast cancer. Impact Guru crowdfunding team will be able to be treated before the disease progresses any further into critical stages and may even have more chances of being cured of it due to the disease being detected early in a person’s body.