Puckering around nipple

[Gingerkittykat]

I found an area of puckering around my nipple this morning, when I poked and prodded it my armpit hurt.

Can puckering ever have an innocent cause? I know lumps can be benign but whenever I have read about puckering it has been as a sign of cancer.

I have a GP appointment in about 10 days so will obviously mention it then.

I have health anxiety, frequently diagnose myself with fatal diseases after consulting Dr Google.

Make another appointment for Monday. You won't know until you know

Here's a small trick that may or may not help you with your googling.

Real GPs are trained to recognise a constallation of symptoms - not one symptom meaning "that's cancer", but a set of symptoms and importantly matching non-symptoms, things the patient doesn't have. That eliminates a vast swathe of possibilities.

Google won't do that, and is not a doctor and doesn't even play one on the internet. It will show you everything that your one searched-for symptom could apply to, then your anxiety will pick out the worst one (always cancer) without stopping to think.

Never refer to Google as "Dr Google" ever again. This is your first step in reducing the anxiety.

The second step is not to search for individual symptoms. After you've been to a GP or specialist, feel free to search for the disease/syndrome they have suggested - then work on eliminating by checking for the things you don't have.

Turning the health anxiety around into looking for missing symptoms is very, very useful.

I had very similar and it was mastitis, I was really surprised as I thought you could only get it when breastfeeding.

Don't leave it 10 days though. Make an emergency appointment on Monday.

I've actually not googled this symptom, I instantly remembered the high profile ads NHS Scotland did a few years back which caused controversy since they showed pictures of breasts. I suppose that shows the awareness ads do work since it has made me want to check this symptom out.

I need to just try and not let myself think the worst until I know for sure.