Quick ? - Cancer: Breast Message Board

billyandsarah99 · 12-27-2006, 04:43 PM

Hi,
I have a ?. I have been having problems for awhile. It started off with real thick white discharge (when I try to rub it into my fingers, it will not rub in it just kind of forms a ball) and a couple of times clear liquid with blood. Then my breast started shrinking (it is very noticabley smaller). I also occ. have pain and my nipple has gotten a little bigger than the other and will not get hard. It is also kind of dipping down on one side into the aeorola. On that side of the nipple it is turning a white, like the color of the discharge. I have been on 2 rounds of antibotics when it first started happening, have had a thyroid and pitutary gland test (both came back okay). I went today to have a mamogram and sono done. The radiologist said he didn't see anything on the sono and that the mamo came back with some less dense areas, but it might just be from my age (I am 25). He said he was going to recommend a test where they stick a needle down into a milkgland and put dye in it and do another test like a mammogram.
My ?'s are what does less dense areas usually mean. I always thought that if you were younger then your breast would show being more dense and as you got older then it became less dense. Why would mine be showing some areas (and not all areas) of being less dense and what does this mean? Also what are they looking for in this other test that he is recommending to my OB that I have done. Does it mean that he thinks I have something, or that maybe it will help him figure out for sure about the less dense areas? I am so confused. I am 25 and had an aunt that had b.c. as well. Thanks for your time and help

newfie11 · 01-03-2007, 03:23 AM

Generaly younger women have dense breast but not always. a 25 year old with 3 kids could be less dense than a 65 year old on hormones. I would not be concerned if there is a less dense area. Cancer, cysts, fibroadenoma are all dense. Two out of those are benign. Fatty breast tissue is less dense and for mammography very desirable. It is easier to "see" through.
The test the doctor is wanting done is called a ductogram. The radiologist uses a small (not sharp) needle. She or he will attempt to express some discharge so they will know what duct opening it is coming from. Once that is found the rad will inject a contrast that is clear to you but shows on the picture. That will be followed by mammogram films.
This is done to find a filling defect in the duct. There are benign things such as papillomas that can grow in the duct and cause the symptoms you are having.
I assume the discharge has already been sent to cytology. If not it should be.