On Friday my boyfriend (who is 34) said he noticed a hard marble sized immobile lump under one of his nipples, and it hurts a little sometimes but not all the time when touched. The nipple itself is also starting to turn slightly inwards and also looks less er pert than the other one..... He went to the Docs tonight and she said she was concerned and has referred him to the 'breast cancer clinic'.
He had testicular cancer back in 2015 (stage one seminoma). I first posted back in 2015 when my boyfriend who was 30 at the time was diagnosed with cancer - my original post about everything that happened is here: https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/testicular-cancer/f/163/t/90439?pi1823=6
In summary, his testicle swelled to almost three times the size over night, was hard all of a sudden and started hurting really badly all of a sudden, we really thought would be nothing (my money was on some kind of injury) but it turned out to be a large tumor (whole testicle was basically cancer). He had it removed, and there was no evidence of any spread thankfully, so he was told it was stage one seminoma. So as good a result as possible after being told you have cancer.
His oncologist said no need for any chemo as he didn't believe there is any benefit from giving this to someone who may never have needed it, so he told us that my boyfriend would be under surveillance only. We decided to trust him and didn't push this as he told us this was the way thinking was going these days with no signs of spread, and no family history etc. The checks he has had have alternated every three months between a chest x-ray and blood test, and a CT scan and blood test. He has now started 6 monthly check ups, and is overdue for a CT scan as they forgot to do one before the last checkup with the oncologist but they have said this won't be a problem. As of June he has been cancer free three years.
I've read that orchiectomy (removal of a testicle) can be a contributing factor to male breast cancer, something to do with it affecting hormones levels, I think an increase in oestrogen somehow. We haven't really noticed anything else other than a big decrease in sex drive, which I am concerned could suggest high oestrogen levels. He also took the drug propecia for about a year before getting testicular cancer in 2015 (he isn't even really balding and has learnt his lesson) and I've read this is also linked to male breast cancer.
We don't know that it is anything bad but his Doc saying she was concerned didn't sound good to me, a couple of years back when I had a white lump on my nipple, my Doc referred me to the breast clinic as well but was reassuring me loads beforehand most things turn out to be nothing etc and a friend who had a lump checked out last year was also reassured loads by her Doc that most lumps are cysts etc but obviously they can't say for certain so have to refer, but she didn't even try to suggest it could be a cyst..... Does this sound bad?
I can't find much really on male breast cancer other than the lump usually occurs around the nipple, is immobile and causes inversion of the nipple....I'm probs fretting over nothing but so hard not too.....
