People hear about breast cancer far too frequently but never really expect it to affect them. The news that a patient has breast cancer typically comes as a shock, even for those who are at a higher risk due to their genes and family history. Sadly, you have little influence over whether you’ll be diagnosed with breast cancer, but you should be aware of the symptoms because doing so could save your life. The importance of early detection and breast cancer awareness is due to this.

Breast cancer won’t wait for October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month before you perform a self-breast exam or get a mammogram. Here are seven breast cancer warning signals you should look out for if you think something unusual is happening in your breast.

Warning Signs Of Breast Cancer 

Typically when you’re told to conduct self-check-ups, you’re instructed to feel for hard and painless lumps in your breast tissue. While this is a good way of checking for abnormal masses, it is also very limited and fails to bring attention to other ways your breast may be showing warning signs of breast cancer.

Top 7 Signs Of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer can manifest itself through a range of symptoms in many different ways. For instance, a suspicious lump may protrude from the breast tissue, yet it is soft rather than firm, rounded rather than uneven in shape, or even uncomfortable. Simply because they do not suit the “hard, irregular-shaped, and painless” definition does not mean that they should be ignored. These cases could also be indicators of breast cancer. Here are some additional clues that could point to early breast cancer symptoms:

• Swollen lymph nodes under the arm or around the collarbone. Breast tissue covers the area under the arms and into the collarbone, and sometimes breast cancer can spread to the lymph nodes in these areas before the original breast tumor is even large enough to be felt.

• Swelling of all or part of the breast. Even if you feel no distinct mass or lump, if you notice that any part of your breast is experiencing swelling, then it may be breast cancer.

• Skin irritation or dimpling. This irritation and dimpling is sometimes referred to as looking like an orange peel would.

• Breast or nipple pain.

• Nipple retraction. You may feel like your breast skin is being pulled inward, and you may notice that your nipple is actually pulling inward too.  

• Redness, scaliness, or thickening of the nipple or breast skin.

• Nipple discharge. The discharge can include anything other than breast milk, and usually occurs without the breast being squeezed, or only on one breast.