Hi there, 

So sorry to hear you are going through this. I would suggest you contact the GP again especially considering you are experiencing other symptoms. I’m 21 myself and I’ve just had my appointment at the breast clinic today, I had an urgent 2 week referral and I’m young myself so please be persistent with your doctor. Breast lumps as well as any other symptoms should be investigated by specialist at the breast clinic.

if you don’t mind me asking did your doctor tell you how long you’d be waiting for your appointment to come through? I was referred on a ‘suspected’ cancer pathway so received an appointment within 2 weeks and symptoms were a breast lump, pain and slightly thickened tissue. The best advice I could give you would be to contact the GP and request another appointment since you are experiencing new symptoms. 

I hope everything goes well for you xx

Hope you got on ok yesterday xx

i was originally referred under the 2 week wait but somewhere along the line it was triaged back to 12 weeks. 

just really worried at the moment! Must try contact my gp again today thank you. It’s such a disheartening process constantly chasing people to sort all of this 

Hi Shell27 

please go back to your GP and ask if your appointment can be pursued particularly if you have noticed further changes. Hopefully you will hear something soon. Remember changes are not always sinister and you are very young which means it could be a hormonal issue? Try not to poke and prod as you may cause swelling. I did this so many times and ended up in pain too. Please let us know how it goes x

My appointment went well thank you, doctor confirmed a fibroenenoma which are benign and are most common in women ages 14 to 35. I know how hard the process can be when I originally had an appointment with my GP they wanted to me ‘wait and see’ if the lump disappeared but I wasn’t satisfied with this and managed to get another appointment and I was seen at the breast clinic exactly 2 weeks from the day I went to see the GP. 

Please chase this up with your GP again, breast cancer is unlikely in younger women but not impossible so it is always worth getting it checked out by a specialist. My GP estimated my lump to be around 4cm but at the clinic they discovered it was only 1.7cm so just goes to show that GPs aren’t experts when it comes to things like this. 

I hope everything goes well for you and you manage to get seen at the Brest clinic soon xx

Really hoping it is just hormonal. Main reason I’m worried is having been on high tech meds for arithritis over the years puts me at a higher risk of all these scary things! 

Ah that’s great to hear! You must be relieved. Still waiting to hear back from gp today. Heard from the breast clinic that it’ll only be a mammogram I’ll be booked in for in a few weeks time and won’t have consultation etc. Not sure if this is unusual. 

I’m not sure tbh with you, when I went yesterday I spoke the to specialist first just so he could asked questions about my symptoms, he then felt my breast to identify where the lump was and sent me for an ultrasound and then he called me back in to discuss my results. He told me that an ultrasound is standard for younger women cause we tend to have denser breast tissue so it can be harder to see things on a mammogram and an ultrasound gives them a better view so it might be the case you receive an ultrasound or a mammogram. You might also need a biopsy if they can’t immediately identify the cause of the lump. The sonographer told me straight away it looked like a fibroadenoma and she spoke to the specialist and he confirmed I wouldn’t need a biopsy so fingers crossed you have a similar experience. 

My GP said I’d have a mammogram but as I said the specialist explained an ultrasound is more efficient for younger women. I’m sending my best wishes to you, I know how nerve racking it is but try not to worry, you won’t know anything until you’ve been seen in clinic 

That’s what I’d assume would happen that I’d at least get to talk to a specialist without having results just sent straight back to my gp. I had also heard about ultrasounds being more accurate for younger people so I was thinking the same that at least if I saw a specialist they would be able to suggest this or at least discuss their reasoning for it! 

so confused at the minute and it doesn’t help that the gp didn’t get back to me today. Seem to be having more aching now even whilst running when not even thinking about it so it’s not in my head in that sense at least. 

Great to hear a positive story though! Hopefully I’ll get some clarity on appointments soon that would even be a start for me at this point x 

Got an appointment for tomorrow with the go thankfully. Spoke to gp today and she wants to reaxmine. Just so frustrating one breast being significantly more swollen than the other even just for wearing a bra making it incredibly uncomfortable. Hopefully get closer to solving all this tomorrow!