Painful lymph nodes under arm pits

I’ve had pain under both arm pits for 5 months now, I saw a dr when it first began and as were no other symptoms she told me to see how it goes.Over the next few months, the pain was up and down, most days manageable with paracetamol and ibuprofen and some days I couldn’t do much, it does get much worse when my period is due. I’m now at the point we’re most days aren’t manageable at all. I was referred to the breast clinic where I had ultrasounds and saw specialists but nothing was found. The technician pushed down on my lymph nodes and I could have screamed. She said my lymph nodes are normal, not swollen and I have no lumps or anything that requires further investigation. The specialist concluded that we don’t know much about womens hormones, but they expect these to be the cause of the pain and basically this is my life now. In pain and uncomfortable.

im not happy with this being my life. I’m 34, I’ve had children, I usually have a very strong pain threshold ( all four deliveries of my children were without pain relief as I just didn’t need it) and I’m reaching out to anyone who may have experienced this and have worked out something to make it more manageable. With this illness comes great fatigue, and I feel quite depressed because of it. It’s making my ability to function as a mum and a person impaired and I’m so fed up of feeling unwell.

any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated, I plan to go back to my doctor and ask for blood works to be done. What could be causing this? What do I do? 

thanks in advance. 

  • A very warm welcome to the forum thequeenofmean although I'm sorry to hear about the pain you're contending with. It sounds like a very difficult and frustrating situation to be in.

    Hopefully some of our members who have contended with something similar will be along soon to offer their thoughts and advice but if you'd like to talk things through with one of our nurses, they're available on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m.

    We're thinking of you thequeenofmean and hope you're able to get to the bottom of this soon.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator