Dear fantasy196791,

Most health care providers recommend that women use monthly breast self-exams (BSEs) to get to know their breasts. The best time for a BSE is one week after your period, when your breasts are not swollen or tender. Lumps are also noticed during day-to-day activities such as showering or sex play. Most lumps are not cancerous. But report anything unusual to your clinician as soon as possible.

If you would like to learn how to do a BSE, your clinician can teach you, or you can follow these three steps:

1. Lying back with a pillow or folded towel under your right shoulder:

• Place your right hand behind your head.
• Examine every part of your right breast with the pads of the three middle fingers of your left hand.
• Gently press in small circles, moving up and down the breast in an up-and-down pattern.
• Use three levels of pressure — light, for the breast tissue near the surface, medium, for the tissue underneath, and firm, for the tissue that is closest to the ribs.
• Feel for lumps, bumps, or thickening.
• Now switch positions and feel the left breast with your right hand, making sure to examine all parts of the breast using the up-and-down pattern.

2. Standing up in front of a mirror:

• Place your hands on your hips.
• Look at each breast for changes in size, shape, and form.

3. Raising your right arm slightly to the side:

• Examine the underarm with your left hand.
• Feel for lumps, bumps, or thickening in the same way.
• Repeat with the other underarm.

How and when women check their breasts vary. There are some women who perform breast self-exams regularly, and some women who do self-exams from time to time. Other women leave all breast exams to their health care provider.

Hope this information helps!

Take care,

teenwire.com^® Editors

This column is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have a medical problem, please call toll-free 1-800-230-PLAN for an appointment with the Planned Parenthood health center nearest you.