Dr. Jenn Simmons walks through how to do a self breast exam. Check monthly on day 7 of your cycle if pre-menopausal, any day if post-menopausal. Look in the mirror with different arm positions, then feel with your fingertips moving from the top toward the nipple in a radial pattern.
Questions this video answers
Day seven of their menstrual cycle.
Once a month.
The fingertips (the most sensitive parts of the hand).
Arm up over the head.
Start at the top and move toward the nipple in a radial (around) fashion.
Doctor Jen, we talked about the benefits of the QT scan that in conjunction with the ARIA tear test, also in conjunction with self breast exams, what are your best tips and tricks for making sure that you're giving an excellent self breast exam to yourself?
So it's not as hard as it seems. I know people get a lot of confusing information about that. I think the most important thing is to know what your normal is and to both look at and examine your breasts every month. If you're premenopausal, that's going to be on day seven of your cycle. If you're postmenopausal just once a month. So you're going to just look at yourself in the mirror, right? You're going to look with your arms down by your side. You're going to look with your hands on your hips and you're going to look with your arms up over your head. And what you're looking for is does that shape change? Do you have any nipple retraction? Do you have any skin retraction? And know that some people have inverted nipples? That's your normal, you don't have to worry. But if you had a nipple that wasn't inverted and starts to invert, that's a change, something you need to pay attention to. When you're examining your breast, you're always going to put your arm up over your head, right? You're going to use your fingertips, those are the most sensitive parts of your hand. And you're going to start at the top and move towards your nipple and go around in a radial fashion. And you're just lightly running your finger over the tissue of the breast and if you ouch or something, it's going to feel like a bump in the world. Okay. So you know that that's pretty much how you examine a breast. If anyone has any questions, I do have a breast exam pinned to the top of my instagram. So that's Dr. Jensimmons. But there's really no wrong way to do it. Just getting to know what your breasts feel like when they, when it's normal so that you can recognize when there's been a change.
