Post menopausal but found lump in breast. What could it be?

What would the likely reason for the firm rigid painless lump in my breast? I'm not on HRT and I've gone through menopause im nearly 59? I've got my appointment for mammogram next Monday but it's annnoyed me a little that they don't give results on the day? I've had this hard rigid lump for nearly 3 months so I can't believe I will have to wait for 2 weeks for results, anyway do post menopausal women get breast cysts or fibroadenoma's? Or are they more common in women in their early 20s and 30s?  

  • Hello Kitty11 and a warm welcome to Cancer Chat, 

    I thought I would share some information with you from the Breast Cancer Now website on fibroadenomas. It mentions that although "fibroadenomas often develop during puberty so are mostly found in young women, they can occur in women of any age". 

    It's very hard to know what has caused this firm rigid painless lump in your breast until you have the full results from your mammogram. I hope that everything goes well for you next Monday and that you won't need to wait too long for the results. It must be a very stressful time for you while waiting to find out more and I thought I would share these tips to help you cope while waiting for important news.

    I know it is really hard but try not to worry too much or anticipate what it might be. The best thing to do to avoid thinking too much about this is to keep busy and distracted if you can and avoid looking things up online. I can imagine it is hard for you to do this at the moment but it will help you feel a little less anxious. 

    I hope you will also hear from others here who have been through all this before and that they will be along soon to share their story with you. 

    Keeping everything crossed for you that everything turns out fine. 

    Best wishes, 

    Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Lucie thank you for replying, and to be honest I'm not really worried, it's just a bit unusual to have this firm rigid painless lump in breast, I told my daughter that breast Cancer doesn't run in my family and she wasn't happy I said that, she said it doesn't work that way anymore, but under my armpit is a hard ball like swelling, but it's probably just fat because I've put a lot of weight on recently even though I've lost my appetite, and I'm very lethargic and fatuiged, I had a blood test and my GP said I was " folate deficient" so I was put on a 4 month course of folic acid medication but I'm still weak and lathargic to the point I don't want to do anything, so after I've had my mammogram I will go back to my GP to sort out my fatuige lethargy and weaknes