Checking For Breast Cancer Is More Important Than Checking The Notifications On Your Phone

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Just like you have your daily CTM skin routine or oiling the hair routine every week, it is also important to take care of your breasts regularly. is important to also take care of your breasts regularly. Breast changes should seek more attention than the notifications on your phone. Regular self-examination of your breasts is the best way to detect breast cancers and catch them early. If breast cancer is caught early is treated more successfully.

Here are 4 easy steps to do a self breast exam

1. Stand in front of a mirror, place your hands on your hips and look at your breasts for their usual size, shape, and color. Look for any uneven shape, visible distortion or swelling. Look out for these:

· Dimpling, puckering, or bulging of the skin

· Nipple has changed position or an inverted nipple (pushed inward instead of sticking out)

· Redness, soreness, rash, or swelling

· Any fluid discharge coming from one or both nipples (this could be a watery, milky, or yellow fluid or blood).

Now, raise your arms and look for the same changes.

2. Using your right hand feel your left breast and then your left hand to feel your right breast. Do this lying down. Use a firm, smooth touch with the first few finger pads of your hand, keeping the fingers flat and together. Check the entire breast from top to bottom, side to side in a circular motion. Start from your collarbone to the top of your abdomen, and from your armpit to your cleavage.

3. Follow a same pattern throughout. Start at the nipple, moving in larger and larger circles until you reach the outer edge of the breast and then move your fingers up and down vertically, in rows. Feel all the tissue from the front to the back of your breasts: for the skin and tissue just beneath, use light pressure; use medium pressure for tissue in the middle of your breasts; use firm pressure for the deep tissue in the back. When you’ve reached the deep tissue, you should be able to feel down to your ribcage.

4. Now feel your breasts while you are standing or sitting. The easiest way to feel the breasts is when the skin is wet and slippery, so you can do this in the shower. Cover your entire breast, and repeat step 3.

What to do if you find an abnormality?

Do not panic if you think you feel a lump in your breast. Get in touch with your doctor if you’ve noticed a lump or other breast change that is mentioned above. Most women may have some lumps or lumpy areas in their breasts and most turn out to be benign (not breast cancer). Non-cancerous breast lumps may be caused due to hormonal changes, a benign breast condition, or an injury.

Also, there are changes in the breasts throughout the menstrual cycle: breasts may seem to get bigger or more prominent in some way. Menstruators may want to wait until after your period to see if the lump or other breast change disappears on its own before calling your doctor.

The doctor may do a physical exam of the breasts and may ask for breast cancer imaging tests. Both an ultrasound and a mammogram are typically recommended to evaluate a lump in women who are over age 30 and not pregnant or breastfeeding. Further tests may include additional imaging with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), MBI (molecular breast imaging), and/or a biopsy if required.

It is important to make sure to get an explanation of the cause of the lump or breast change from your doctor, and, if necessary, a plan for monitoring it or treating it. Don’t hesitate to get a second opinion if you are not comfortable or satisfied with the doctor.

How often should one do breast self-exam

Do breast self-examination once a month to familiarize yourself with how your breasts normally look and feel especially after your period ends, when your breasts are least likely to be swollen and tender. If you don’t menstruate, choose a day that’s easy to remember and follow it every month. The upper, outer area around the armpits has the most prominent lumps and bumps.

Record the findings of your breast self-exams in a diary as this may help you remember, every month what is “normal” for your breasts. Lumps may appear at certain times of the month and disappear as your body changes with the menstrual cycle (if you are still menstruating).

Source: breastcancer.org

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We women are often judged for everything — from what we eat to how we look, how we walk, how we dress to what we speak — we are judged for every damn thing!

And I guess that’s what made me underconfident and a big-time introvert!!

I remember going to college with my hair tied because people made fun of my frizzy hair. Oh, and the clothes I wore — never dared to wear a sleeveless one. Those judging eyes of both men and women always haunted me as I walked down the lane.

It still does!!

I couldn’t ever make friends, not even girls, let alone boys. My self-confidence was right under my bed, and I couldn’t even hold it up together.

Being a sexually assaulted kid, it was even more difficult to interact with new people, and I never really could trust anyone.

Schools and elders never bothered to teach me about sex education, and my periods were just another trauma that happened to me. Well, atleast I thought so!

I wonder how much things would have been different if I was thought everything — if I was told to trust myself — if I was taught to value my soul over my skin!!

After innumerable infatuations and a couple of heartbreaks, I was finally able to work my relationship out. I experienced love, and my body experienced sensations that can never be explained.

But alas! It didnt last long. And my forever prince just became another lost chapter of my life.

But a relationship did teach me a lot!!

I remember a guy telling me once that it was completely okay to touch yourself — to tickle yourself and feel pleasures. I had met that guy via some dating app. Well, he wasn’t the first to preach to me — seems like lack of sex was so much visible on my face!! Does it really happen, huh?

And then I tried — took his advice and in that one moment of guilty pleasure I learnt more about my vagina and the g-spot than any biology book could have taught me ever!

Did I feel bad? Hell yes!

I was ashamed to admit or tell anyone that I masturbated. We live in a society where the term sex can still be gulped down, but the ‘women and masturbation’ is like the end of kalyug!!

And oh, how can I forget when the movie ‘veere ki wedding’ released and Swara Bhaskar taught the whole nation about masturbation. I was like, ‘hawww, we can talk about it too!!’

Yes, I was in my cocoon confiding in myself, thinking what a big sinister I am only because my body needed something that biology could explain but societal values could not.

And after months of struggle, self-doubt, lack of confidence, and some one night stand, I learnt that it is fine and somewhat necessary to masturbate — that in the end, our body is just a machine that needs repair and it’s all about chemicals.

The more I made love to myself — the more I fell in love with myself — the more I cherished my skin and every organ.

You don’t really need social validation from some random xyz because they are not you — I learnt this the hard way.

All you need is to accept yourself. Eventually, you will age, your skin will wrinkle, and you might get fat — let’s be practical — we all will. But your body belongs to you — only you. Cherish it, explore it, love it and enjoy it before it stops working.

As told to the author!