Breast Pain due to Central Sensitization?

[helenlegs 11]

I am grateful the burning pain in my breasts has been gone now for several weeks.

Thank goodness for that faith. Getting some trigger point release should help too, fingers crossed. Over here In the UK they are getting very big on cognitive and mindfulness training for chronic pain sufferers. . . . . Still haven't been offered any however but I have read a few books and articles about it all and can see the value. Do you employ any of the those techniques?

[Faith]

Just an update: I had a mammogram and everything was normal (of course). So it seems my breast pain is due to some fibrocystic changes as well as trigger points in the chest muscles and I'm sure central sensitization makes it all worse. It's extremely annoying and so far nothing really takes it away. My chest muscles are extremely tight so it will take a lot of trigger point work/massage to begin to make a dent in that pain.

[Violet M]

Hi Faith,

That's good news that it's not something potentially fatal but on the other hand it's difficult when you don't have a definite diagnosis or answer to your problems. Have you been diagnosed with fibromyalgia? I wonder if it can affect those particular muscles.

Violet

[dingdong]

Those who want to get information about fibrocystic breast issue, check out this link.

[Dr. Jason G. Attaman]

Well, about 2.5 months ago it seems out of no where I developed breast pain. It began as quite severe (burning/tenderness/extreme sensitivity to clothing). I had started a low dose of Flexeril at night to help with sleep/muscle pain about 2 months prior so I stopped it in case it was in some mysterious way causing the pain. It did seem to get a little better, but it has continued and varied at different times of my hormonal cycle (sometimes I can't even stand for my daughter to lean up against me!). The biggest symptom that continues throughout the whole month however is pain under my arms (sometimes into the bicep area) and especially around where my shirt sleeves rub in my armpit area.

First of all, WHAT IN THE WOLRD....right?!?! Am, I crazy. I sure feel like it. I finally mentioned it to my pelvic pain doc yesterday. I wondered if perhaps I had developed some fibrocystic breast disease, as this runs in my family, but my pelvic pain doc (a urogyno) felt like my pain was too severe to be something like that. She thought it was likely just central sensitization. Of course she did not examine me as this is not her area of pracitce, but it does seem unlikely to be fibrocystic breast disease due to the extreme sensitivity I am dealing with. But WHY? Why did I all of a sudden devleop more pain in the breast area? Perhaps it's musculoskeltal in cause (as I have biomechanical/alignment issues), but even the symptoms dont' seem to match that.

Any thoughts? Do you agree central sensitization? Should I see my local OBGYN for a 2nd opinoin? Advil/tylenol do help a little I think so I wonder if it really is central sensitization. All I know is...it's about enough to drive me crazy on top of all my other issues!

Hi Faith,

I stumbled across your post and it caught my eye.

I cannot give specific or individual medical advice in this format.

However, nobody would disagree that you should absolutely talk to your primary care doctor about this so they can rule out any number of causes that are common.

One uncommon cause of this type of pain in the armpit is intercostobrachial neuralgia. It is a type of nerve injury. Essentially it is the pudendal nerve of the thorax

I have a blog post about this on my website. I'll link it here but happy to delete it should it violate any rules:

https://jasonattaman.com/intercostobrachial-neuralgia/

Above all, please do see your PCP first.

Best, Dr. Attaman