Mastodynia, mastalgia or mammalgia are names for a medical symptom that means breast pain (from the Greek masto-, breast and algos, pain).
Pain can range from minor discomfort to severely incapacitating pain. Many women are more worried about a possible cancer risk than about the pain.
Breast pain during lactation or after weaning is not included into this definition but usually classified as breast engorgement or mastitis.
Types
It can be classified into 2 main clinical patterns:
* cyclical when the pain intensity is changing during the menstrual cycle.
* non-cyclical when the pain remains essentially unchanged during the menstrual cycle. This type is less frequent.
Causes mastrodinia
Cyclical breast pain is very often associated with fibrocystic breast changes or duct ectasia and believed to be caused by aberrations in dynamic hormonal changes mainly involving prolactin response to thyrotropin.
