What causes breast pain ?

Breast pain (mastalgia) a common complaint among women can include breast tenderness, sharp burning pain or tightness in your breast tissue. The pain may be constant or it may occur only occasionally. Generally breast pain can be divided into two categories which are cyclical pain and non cyclical pain. Cyclical breast pain happens during a woman's menstrual cycle. A range of sensations in both breasts can accompany the hormonal ebb and flow that a premenopausal woman normally experiences. Those of us who have had premenstrual syndrome -- PMS -- know the feeling of achy, swelling breasts that starts before your period and goes on until your menses have stopped. Cyclical breast pain can be due to fibrocystic breast changes, but may also be due to mammary duct ectasia -two benign breast conditions. Noncyclical breast pain is also known as trigger zone pain. With noncyclical breast pain, you will feel pain in one specific area, and it will be unrelated to your menstrual cycle. This noncyclical breast pain may occur in only one breast, but may affect both breasts. This kind of pain also varies in intensity and may be caused not by hormones, but by illness or injury; internal changes brought on by pregnancy, weight gain, or breast surgery; or certain medications. Hormonal medications, such as HRT or birth control pills, will cause changes in your breast sensitivity. Wearing an ill-fitting bra can cause breast pain, but it won't cause breast cancer. In only 5 out of 100 cases of cancer, pain is linked to a breast tumor. Furthermore , when talking about pain it is important to know the nerves that innervate that certain area. The breast received its innervation from the lateral and anterior cutaneous branches of the second to the sixth intercostal nerves and from the supraclavicular nerves. On the lateral side, branches from the third (9/12), fourth (12/12) and fifth (4/12), and on the medial side branches from the second (3/12), the third (6/12), the fourth (4/12) and the fifth (2/12) intercostal nerves were traced to a plexus under the areola. Branches from the sixth intercostal nerve supplied the lower part of the breast but there was no direct branch to the nipple. The nerves to the nipple lay in the superficial fascia and passed through the subdermal tissue of the areola to form a plexus under it. Figure 1 below shows the nerve innervations of breast. Figure 1

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Breast Pain; Pp. 77-85. Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book. Susan M. Love, M.D. Fifth Edition, 2010. source:http://breastcancer.about.com/od/risk/tp/Breast-Pain-Cyclical-Noncyclical.htm Br J Plast Surg. 1996 Apr;49(3):156-64.,An anatomical study of the nerve supply of the breast, including the nipple and areola.,Sarhadi NS, Shaw Dunn J, Lee FD, Soutar DS.,Source West of Scotland Regional Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit, Canniesburn Hospital, Glasgow. Source by http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8785595 source by http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-witmer/Downloads/2012-04-24_Dashner_RPACBreastAnatomy.pdf