I have a twinge of pain, but as medical procedures go it barely counts as uncomfortable. She has to kind of squeeze my chest to “create” a breast, as a shirtless boy would, goofing off for his friends. I can see this would be easier if you had more “grabbable” breasts. She positions my “breast” between the two plates. The machine looks like a combination dental X-ray and George Foreman Grill. If there’s one thing I thought I knew about mammograms, it’s that it’s always a topless affair. The medical technician looks at my button-down shirt and tells me I don’t have to take it off, just open it. I get emotional as I wait, imagining how often my mother sat through days like this, and much worse.Ī discreet nurse summons me into a small room. “Hugs! Yeah, they typically tell you while you’re there, if it’s diagnostic and not a routine check-up,” my sister Emily writes. This sends me scrambling to group-text my sisters and girlfriend, all of whom have been through this, and whose support is a perfect hand-hold. I was only braced for the process, not the diagnosis. I’m also told I’ll get an instant reading afterward. Then I notice each is with a woman who presumably is the one readying for a mammogram. I’m happy after check-in to see five men among the 20 people in the waiting room. Which brings us back to the breast center. I start calling it my “man-ogram,” thinking I’ve coined the term, then learn that’s reserved for prostate exams.Īlso, I worry about how I’ll look with my shirt off. ![]() “I should probably schedule a Pap smear too,” I thought. I confess curiosity helped drive me to forge ahead and that despite the seriousness of what the test might reveal, I see the humor in it. In retrospect, the case was fairly thin for that, adding my experience to those highlighted in several major recent studies that found the tests are over-ordered. The lab decided a mammogram would be more useful. Because of my family history, she wanted a breast ultrasound. My personal education began a week earlier with a routine physical, when I told my doctor of a slight pain near my lymph nodes. Men’s symptoms are the same as women’s: Lumps or thickening in breast tissue, changes to breast skin, nipple discharge. men in 2017, and about 460 will die from it. About 2,500 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in U.S. Breast cancer is about 100 times more common in women, according to the American Cancer Society. Like any set of cells, it can become cancerous. Men have a small amount of breast tissue, similar to girls before puberty. My daughter, now 13, has the same history on her mother’s side.īut I found when it came to the details and realities, I knew nothing. My family is fraught with breast cancer: My mom had it twice and died from it, and my big sister had it. In most cases, an inverted nipple is a natural, harmless, normal thing.On one level, this is a world I know all too well. Warmth and/or stimulation is usually enough to push the nipple back out. Sometimes this is a permanent condition (congenital inversion), and sometimes it's a temporary reaction (to cold temperature, for example). The condition is not rare and affects anywhere from 2 to 10% of people. Nipples don't always stick out.Īn "inverted" or "retracted nipple" is when the tip of the nipple pulls inward, below the surface of the areola. Weight gain or loss can also effect changes. ![]() It is not uncommon for nipples' size, color, and sensitivity to change over time. Areolas are part of your skin, and this means they can stretch, especially when you gain or lose weight. Puberty causes nipples to grow and darken, but fluctuations in hormone levels can cause changes to the nipple later in life, also. A guy's nipples may change over time.Ī man's nipples will often change over the course of their lifetime.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |