Check your boobs! Are they lumpy?

Even young, hot, women can have lumpy boobs

My sister recently found lumps in her boobs. This wasn’t the first time she found lumps. She’d been through this once before (a year ago when she first started yelling at me to check my boobs). She had a biopsy (not fun), then surgery to get the lumps removed (super not fun). And now she’s going through it all again, in the middle of COVID. She’s young (in her early 30s), stunningly beautiful, and otherwise in perfect health. She’s just like me. And just like you.

I hate hearing news like this. I hate it for the obvious reason: I want my sister to be ok. But I also hate it because it makes me worry that it could happen to me (not something I’m proud to admit, but it’s true).

The first thing my sister said to me after telling me about her new lumps was: “Nelly, check your boobs!” I didn’t listen, which is so stupid because checking my boobs would be the best way of getting ahead of a potential problem.

When we hear of someone our age getting sick, it’s unsettling. It reminds us of our own mortality. Could that happen to me? But when I picture someone who is at risk of breast cancer, I picture an old lady with short grey hair and pockets full of butterscotch candies. Certainly not someone my age. 

I’m not the only one who thinks this way. When I searched “how to do a breast self-exam”, the top result was a tutorial with photos of a granny giving herself an exam. See for yourself: Breast Self-Exam. Surely this was proof that I was too young to be worrying about such things.

So what can we do? I like to think of myself as young and invincible, but I’m not. I’m in my late-thirties. And while I’m not worried about getting older, I hate the health deterioration that can accompany it. I’ve made several diet & lifestyle changes over the last decade to avoid health issues most commonly associated with aging: 

• Bread, milk, and sugar have become special treats instead of daily staples (to avoid diabetes and Alzheimer’s) 

• Daily exercise is almost mandatory, even if it’s just a walk with the dog (to avoid broken bones and injury); and

• Adequate sleep has become a top priority (to allow the clearing out of brain plaque which can lead to various neurological disorders)*. 

But how can I avoid boob lumps? I don’t think I can. It seems all I can do is check my boobs to catch problematic lumps early. Ugh.

Back to my sister

I asked what made her go looking for lumps. Theoretically, she should have been just as averse to checking her boobs as I was. She explained that she heard a story about a friend of a friend, who was young and attractive (just like she was) who found a lump. The lump turned out to be cancerous, so that young, attractive, friend of a friend, had to get a mastectomy (boob removal) and undergo chemotherapy. Not exactly the kind of story one likes to hear. So my sister, who had noticed something funny in her chest area several months prior but hadn’t done anything about it, got scared enough to finally talk to her doctor. 

And that’s when she started pestering me: “CHECK YOUR BOOBS!”

I finally checked my boobs (last week)

Almost a year and half after my sister found her first lump, I finally followed the granny’s guide and did my own boob exam. It was awkward. I would have much preferred a tutorial with some hot model lathering herself up in the shower showing her young hot viewers (like me) how to do an exam. But a granny is what I had so I went with it. I found some lumpiness under my right boob area and got scared, then I checked the other side and realized it was symmetrical lumpiness, which made me think it was muscle or some other inner mechanics. I’m not a doctor, what do I know? I plan to book a proper physical with my family doctor and make her double check for me. In the meantime, I’ll be boob-checking once per month as recommended by health practitioners and angry sisters everywhere.

Moral of the story

I’m going to say to you (my valued readers) what my sister said to me: CHECK YOUR BOOBS! 

Or get your partner to check them for you. Whatever works 😉

Last thing before you go…

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. If you checked your boobs after reading this, please let me know in the comments! It might encourage others to do the same.

Please also consider sharing this post with a friend.

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Until next time, stay safe and healthy,

Nelly

Notes:*I’m not a doctor and this is not medical advice. I’m just going from memory from several books I’ve read about how diet & lifestyle can affect your long term health, namely: Genius Foods by Max Lugavere, The Autoimmune Fix by Dr. Tom O’Bryan, The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington, and Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don’t Have by Dr. David Sinclair (currently reading).