What is commonly understood in gynecology as "mastopathy" and from what does it arise?
Disease of mastopathy is a benign formation of the mammary gland, which is accompanied by the growth of its connective tissue cells. As a rule, such a disease develops, as a result of the violation of the hormonal background in the female body. The danger of such a disease lies in the fact that it can easily go into oncology.
If we talk directly about the causes that contribute to the development of the disease, there are quite a few of them, which explains the complexity of diagnosis in each specific case. Most often, a similar violation is cited:
- inflammatory process of the reproductive system;
- Sexual infections;
- constant stress and overstrain;
- abortion in the past.
What kinds of mastopathy are usually given?
Depending on the changes at the tissue level, mastopathy is defined as fibrocystic disease, which is characterized by a whole range of regressive processes in the glandular tissue of the breast. In this case, a violation of the ratio of glandular and connective tissue components is almost always observed.
Today there are a lot of synonyms for the name of this disease: cystic fibroadenomatosis, Schimmelbusch's disease, fibrocystic mastopathy, dyshormonal hyperplasia, fibrocystic disease, etc.
For the convenience of clinical practice, as a rule, a classification is used, according to which mastopathy is divided into nodular and diffuse.
Among the forms of diffuse mastopathy it is customary to isolate: adenosis, fibrous mastopathy, cystic and mixed forms.
If we talk about the fact that this is a local or nodal mastopathy, then from the name it is clear that it is characterized by the presence of seals in the gland. It is subdivided into: nodular mastopathy, breast cyst, intraprostatic papilloma, fibroadenoma.
Depending on whether one or both glands are involved in the pathological process, distinguish:
- one-sided - only one breast is affected;
- bilateral mastopathy - means that changes are present in both glands, and this is confirmed by mammography.
Depending on the degree of changes present, the following are distinguished:
- pronounced - more than 70% of glandular cells were damaged;
- expressed - in the pathological process involved 50-70% of the glandular tissue of the mammary glands;
- moderate mastopathy - means that less than 50% of the tissue is affected, and this is seen on the mammogram.
How does the disease manifest itself?
Having dealt with what is mastopathy and from what this disease develops, let's name the symptoms that are characteristic for this disorder.
So, the initial stage of the disorder is the diffuse form. It begins directly with the growth of connective tissue cells. As a result, after a while, very small (size comparable to millet) nodules begin to form. At this stage of the disturbance, the main symptom that worries a woman is soreness in the chest. In this case, the pain in the mammary gland is directly related to the cyclic changes in the woman's body: it appears before menstruation and decreases with the onset of discharge. At the same time, small globular seals can be seen in the breast, mainly in the upper part.
The nodular form develops in the absence of treatment of diffuse, and is characterized by increased pain in the chest, which often radiates to the shoulder and axilla. In some cases, any contact with the chest is painful to a woman. At the same time from the nipple appear discharge, in appearance very similar colostrum.
Treatment of mastopathy
From the information indicated in the article, it can be seen that the disease of mastopathy is a violation having a polyethological origin, i.e. develops because of a variety of reasons. That is why before the therapy it is very important to establish exactly the one that led to the violation in a particular case.
The basis of the treatment process, as a rule, is hormone therapy, together with which physiotherapy (laser therapy, magnetotherapy) is prescribed, and symptomatic treatment is also performed.