Somewhat Nasty Surprise

[coinflipper_21 (imported)]

Sitting on the can, the other night, I reached across my left breast to scratch an itch in my armpit when I felt something hard. I gave myself a self breast exam, as I have seen my wife do, and sure enough I found a lump. Yesterday, I went to the doctor, who confirmed my discovery, and I am now scheduled for diagnostic tests to find out what it is.

My wife maintains that if men had to have yearly x-rays of their balls with something like a mammography machine there would be a better diagnostic procedure for breast cancer. She was almost disappointed to find out that mammograms are not done on men because they don't give good pictures due to thicker breast tissue in men. Actually, she is a bit freaked by the possibility that it could be breast cancer, but there are a whole host of benign things that it could be also.

Obviously, it can happen to a man. Has anyone else, here, had this experience?

[IbPervert (imported)]

Hear in San Diego, a few years ago, one of the male news anchors had breast cancer. He did survive and he kept an online blog about his adventure.

http://www.10news.com/billsbattle/index.html

Good luck!

[Castroboi (imported)]

Oh man I hope it is not cancer, but if it is you can beat it ^_^

[A-1 (imported)]

Sitting on the can, the other night, I reached across my left breast to scratch an itch in my armpit when I felt something hard. I gave myself a self breast exam, as I have seen my wife do, and sure enough I found a lump. Yesterday, I went to the doctor, who confirmed my discovery, and I am now scheduled for diagnostic tests to find out what it is.

My wife maintains that if men had to have yearly x-rays of their balls with something like a mammography machine there would be a better diagnostic procedure for breast cancer. She was almost disappointed to find out that mammograms are not done on men because they don't give good pictures due to thicker breast tissue in men. Actually, she is a bit freaked by the possibility that it could be breast cancer, but there are a whole host of benign things that it could be also.

Obviously, it can happen to a man. Has anyone else, here, had this experience?

Breast Cancer in the male is rare, with only about 2000 cases reported annually.

But men do have mammograms (http://menstuff.org/issues/byissue/breastcancer.html) and can also have breast cancer.

The Mayo Clinic is recommending the discontinuation of mammograms for men, (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/59280.php) which has been a standard paractice to diagnose lumps in the male breast in the past.

BTW, if you are using estrogen, it might be best to stop. Make sure that you tell your doctor if you have been on depro-provera or any other female-type hormones.

[bobbie (imported)]

While it is rare I knew of a friend that had it as well in both breasts. He was early 60's. It effected him greatly getting that cancer. He recovered and no spread of the disease that I know of. It has been over 10 years now.

[Jim the Eunique (imported)]

I found a lump and it ended up being a swollen mammary gland. By the time they were thru checking, I'd had 7 mammograms! Oh, so much fun! A guy I work with had a breast removed because of a lump. It does happen.

[ramses (imported)]

Soooo..... what did the doctor say, Coinflipper?

[coinflipper_21 (imported)]

Soooo..... what did the doctor say, Coinflipper?

OOPS! Sorry, I thought I had posted the results. An ultrasound proved it to be a benign, fatty tumor. Apparently, these things develop as you get older, never turn into cancers, and are not worth bothering with unless they are in an inconvenient or noticeable place. This result inspired me to write the story, "Too Easy" in the archive.

The doctor told me that he had only found two actual breast cancers in men, in all his career, (He's about my age.) but you still should have any suspicious lump checked out.

Thank you. very much, for your concern.

[Riven (imported)]

Very glad to hear it was benign. My wife has breast cancer and we know that although a lot of people's cancers respond to treatments there are still many people who die of it. The treatments are getting more effective all the time, but they are not easy to endure. My wife's first breast cancer was a cluster of tumors which the oncologist said was a very unstable kind. He was absolutely right, because despite mastectomy, lymph node removal radio and chemo therapy, it came back the following year as inflammatory breast cancer in the other breast. That was removed too and she had a different chemo which very nearly killed her by knocking out her immune system and allowing septicemia. However she survived and managed another couple of years, then it came back as brain metastases (secondary cancers). This puts her firmly in the terminal category. Massive doses of steroids + radiotherapy got those under control, and a year on she's doing well. But I think she'll agree with me if I say that everything we've been through with this has been easier to deal with than the initial shock of finding the lump in the first place. When you entitled this thread 'Somewhat Nasty Surprise', I found myself wondering how many people appreciate what a massive understatement that is.

[Kangan (imported)]

Speaking of Cancer.... I had a small skin cancer on my arm (pencil eraser size pink bump). After castration it went away - like totally. Cannot even find it now. If testosterone fuels prostate cancer, then it could also fuel other types of cancer too. Oh yeah... I can pee quite a large stream now that my prostate has shrunk.