Your GP will be able to diagnose cyclical breast pain by asking you about your symptoms and your general health. For example, your GP may ask:
- whether the pain affects both breasts
- where in your breasts you feel the pain
- whether you are taking any medication, such as the combined contraceptive pill
- whether you could be pregnant
- whether you have any other symptoms, such as a lump or discharge from your nipples
- whether you smoke
- how much caffeine there is in your diet (found in tea, coffee and cola)
The answers to these questions will help your GP to rule out any other possible causes of your breast pain.
Your GP may also decide to examine your breasts if your breasts feel lumpy when you experience breast pain.
Recording breast pain
If you have moderate to severe breast pain, your GP may ask you to complete a breast pain chart. The chart can be used to confirm your diagnosis and to plan appropriate treatment.
Breast pain chart
You can use a breast pain chart to record whether your breast pain on a particular day is mild, moderate or severe.
The chart will usually have a series of small boxes with the month and date next to each one. You fill in the box for each day of the month to indicate the level of pain that you have.
For example:
- Filling in the whole box might indicate severe pain.
- Filling in half the box might indicate mild pain.
- Putting a dot in the middle of the box might indicate that you do not have any pain at all.
However, breast pain charts can differ slightly, so your GP will explain what you need to do when they give you the chart.
See Cyclical breast pain – Treatment for more information about recording breast pain.
