The ‘silent’ diabetes symptom that you can find in your breasts revealed – here’s how to check yourself
WHEN a woman found a lump in her breast doctors expected the worst.
The 64-year old had turned up at Longhua Hospital, China, with a “firm” but “movable” mass in her right breast.
Doctors believed the woman, who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, could have breast cancer and suggested the mass be removed.
After surgery, further testing revealed the mass was not cancerous but a condition known as diabetic mastopathy.
Diabetic mastopathy is a rare breast condition that occurs in people with poorly controlled diabetes.
It is mostly diagnosed in women with long-standing type 1 diabetes, but the condition has also been reported in women with type 2 and men.
According to Diabetes UK, it’s not clear what causes diabetic mastopathy, but persistent high blood glucose levels may play a part.
The rare condition is poorly researched, but experts believe removal is not always necessary as the lumps are likely to regrow unless the blood glucose levels are controlled.
Writing in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, doctors called for more research of diabetic mastopathy so “develop better diagnostic and treatment strategies”.
The medics had only discovered the woman had poorly managed diabetes after her mass had been removed.
“Treatment should focus on controlling diabetes and managing any associated symptoms,” they said.
Three months after her surgery, the mass had not reemerged, doctors said
There are a record five million people thought to have type 1 or type 2 diabetes in the UK – and of these 850,000 don’t know they have it.
Type 1 diabetes means that the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin.
Type 2 is when the body does not produce enough insulin, or the body’s cells do not react to insulin.
Untreated on unregulated diabetes can lead to long-term complications, such as heart disease, kidney damage, vision loss or even death.
How to check yourself
There’s no right or wrong way to check your breasts.
But it’s important to know how your breasts usually look and feel.
That way, you can spot any changes quickly and report them to a GP.
Having diabetic mastopathy does not mean that you are at increased risk of breast cancer.