To ask about breast cancer symptoms?

[Justabitworried]

Last night in the shower I found a small hard painless lump near the surface on my lower left breast. The skin above the lump is red. It sort of looks like an insect bite but is completely painless.

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm panicking about breast cancer but I've never heard of a breast cancer lump being red. I'm hoping someone can calm me down!

As far as I’m aware, you can get a rash or redness as a symptom but not usually alongside a lump. Could it be that it’s red from you pressing it a lot?

The rule of thumb is if it’s a new lump, or a lump that does not feel the same as other tissue in your breasts, get it checked.

With your description, it's more likely to be an infection. Make an appointment to see your GP on Monday, or go to out of hours gp / a+e if it gets worse / you start to feel unwell before then.

It's possible your GP will refer you to a breast clinic for further investigation depending on their assessment.

Try not to worry, most breast lumps turn out to be nothing, but unless it's an infection that settles rapidly with antibiotics, or clearly within the skin of the breast rather than the breast tissue, it would usually need further tests to be sure (I'm a breast surgeon)

And, stay away from Google!

Thank you so much, I'll make an appointment on Monday.

It's possible your GP will refer you to a breast clinic for further investigation depending on their assessment.

Definitely, and just wanted to add that’s not necessarily something to worry about. You tend to get referred if there’s a lump just because GPs are not specialists. I went, and got referred, and the woman at the clinic was like “this is completely normal breast tissue”.

Thanks cats that's reassuring, I'm quite an anxious person just in general so this has really set me off.