What is the reason for the pain in the chest before menstruation

Many girls are always unable to remember their physiological period, and breast swelling and pain for this part of the girl becomes a signal of the imminent visit of the great aunt, which seems to be a good signal for it, but what causes breast swelling and pain before menstruation?

Due to liver qi stagnation

Modern medicine believes that premenstrual breast swelling and pain is caused by increased estrogen levels in the body before menstruation, breast enlargement, and edema in the interstitial breast tissue. Chinese medicine believes that women's long-term emotional problems and excessive stress in life lead to liver qi stagnation or phlegm and dampness obstruction, which can cause premenstrual breast pain when the Qi and blood in the flushing veins are full before menstruation and the stagnation is even worse, making the breast complex not smooth. Among women who suffer from menstrual breast pain clinically, 90% of them are liver qi stagnation type, most of them are caused by anger. Especially if you get angry during menstruation, the probability of having liver qi stagnation and breast swelling and pain will be greater.

Physiological swelling and pain

The breast gland, like the uterus, changes cyclically. 7 to 10 days before menstruation is the period of breast gland hyperplasia, when androgen and progesterone secretion increases, anti-diuretic hormone function is very active, aldosterone secretion becomes more, breast ducts expand, epithelial cells proliferate and hypertrophy, which leads to breast distension and pain. The physiological breast swelling and pain before menstruation will disappear automatically with the arrival of menstruation.

Pathological swelling and pain

If the breast swelling and pain do not get any relief as the menstrual period progresses and the breast feels lumpy on self-examination, then it is also possible that you are suffering from breast enlargement. Mammary gland hyperplasia mainly stems from endocrine imbalance, which is directly manifested by reduced secretion of luteinizing hormone and relatively high secretion of estrogen. Pathological breast swelling and pain should be promptly checked and treated in a hospital.

What diseases to be alerted by chest swelling and pain

If the chest swelling and pain before the onset of menstruation is strong, it is necessary to be alert to the disease of mastocytosis, which can not only cause pain in the breast, but also induce the appearance of breast lumps.

How to regulate the swelling and pain in the chest before menstruation

Adjust your diet

If you feel that your breasts are regularly swollen and painful, you can adopt a low-fat, high-fiber diet, eating more high-fiber coarse grains, fruits and vegetables and legumes, and less high-fat, high-sugar, high-animal-protein foods, and avoiding pickled, fire-roasted and spicy foods.

Reduce salt intake

High-salt foods should be avoided 7 to 10 days before your period, as such foods can make your breasts swell. People who often settle for three meals a day in restaurants need to pay attention to the fact that food in restaurants often adds a lot of condiments, so its salt content is much higher than that of home-made dishes. If you eat a very salty stew or snack, do not immediately drink a lot of water, because this not only does not neutralize the salt, but also allows the salt to penetrate into the bloodstream through the liquid and compress the blood vessels.

Quit caffeine

There are medical experiments that prove that quitting the habit of drinking coffee every day will result in significant improvement in breast swelling and pain. Of course, not only coffee, but also stay away from caffeinated chocolate, cola, tea, and even painkillers containing caffeine, so as to relieve the pain.

Massage your breasts often

Gently massaging your breasts can help excess body fluid from your breasts return to the lymphatic system. When massaging, first apply massage oil to the breasts, rotate your fingers along the surface of the breasts in a coin-sized circle, and then use your hands to press the breasts in and then pop them up again to help prevent and relieve breast discomfort.

Hot compresses

Hot compress is a more effective way to regulate menstrual discomfort, hot compress method mainly hot water bag compress, hot bath, through the hot compress method can eliminate breast discomfort.

Self-examination method

Emphasis on self-examination is also an important method to eliminate chest discomfort. After taking a bath and standing naked in front of a mirror, cross your arms and observe from the mirror whether there are any skin abnormalities on both sides of your breasts and whether your nipples are sunken in, then put your fingers together and press each part of your breast to check for lumps. Be gentle with your hands.

Is breast tenderness during menstruation the same as pregnancy tenderness?

It is not the same. Before menstruation, it is all breast swelling and pain, and the nipple areola color will not become darker. In the case of pregnancy, there will be a tingling sensation in the nipples and a swelling of the breasts, the nipple areola will gradually become darker and there will be small dots around the nipples that will rise as the pregnancy grows, the breasts (mammary glands) will gradually develop further and increase in size in preparation for breastfeeding.