Set Your Mind at Ease With Improved Awareness

As you know awareness leads to a better understanding of your breasts especially when you carry out self-breast examination. You can only improve your breast awareness if you regularly check your breasts throughout your life. Do you know the importance of self-examination? Many women do know but they do not know what changes to look for while carrying out this examination. Below are step by step instructions to perform self-examination of your breasts along with changes you need to observe during this examination:

Self-examination of breasts

An easy and effective method of performing self-examination of your breasts is while lying on a bed. At night you have plenty of time to check your breasts and know their normal feel and look.

· Undress from the waist up and lie down on a bed.

· Place a pillow under your right shoulder and position your right arm under your head.

· Make a pad of three middle fingers of your left hand and move it over your breast.

· Make circular motions and check how your breast feels normally.

· Apply three different pressure levels i.e. light, medium and firm pressure on your breast using your pad.

· Do not cause pain in your breast while applying these pressure levels. Move the pad gently over all parts of breast.

· Repeat all above steps for your other breast and rest of chest area. Make sure you note down all of your observations during this exam on a notepad.

Remember that you need to bide your time and observe the normal feel and look of breasts in detail. It is important to share your observation with your GP so you can get a proper diagnosis or treatment if required.

Know the changes you need to look for during self-examinationof breasts

It is equally important to know what changes to observe during this examination so you can effectively carry out it. Changes you need to look for are mentioned below:

· Change in the size or shape of your breasts. It is normal to have one breast larger than the other one.

· Change in the position and shape of the nipples.

· Nipple discharge

· Inverted nipples

· Puckering or dimpling of the breast skin

· Swelling under your armpit or around the collarbone

· Persistent pain in any part of the breast

· Rash on or around the nipple area

. Lumping or thickening in any part of the breast

You should consider these changes during examination.

James is a blogger and writer. He usually writes about breast cancer, breast awareness and breast examination. You can contact him directly at james@breastlight.com.

Original article