My Experience

A lump was found on my right breast during my first mammogram at age 40. The doctor wanted to do a sonogram to confirm the findings. They lead me to a small room with sonogram equipment. The doctor was very solicitous of my panicky state. She had me lie on my back with my right arm up, put some gel on my breast, and with the lights low, passed a wand from the machine over my breast. “So far, I see nothing,” she told me, but then I saw her marking something on the image. I asked her what it was, and she said, “Well, you have a mass, but it is consistent with a nonmalignant mass.” She told me she believed it was a fibroadenoma, which is a nonmalignant mass, and “Many woman are walking around with them.” She later wrote the term down, in case I wanted to research it for myself. We discussed whether I have a history of breast cancer in my family, and I told her my mother’s mother had had a “lumpectomy” (which the doc said is the term they use when it’s malignant) in her 80’s. She then told me she wanted to do a biopsy, which I agreed to. The biopsy confirmed it was a nonmalignant mass.