Hi,

After my daughter was born in 2016, my hormones shifted up a gear or two and in 2017 I was diagnosed as perimenopausal. I was placed on HRT in January 2020 aged 41 after further tests, and a routine bone scan shortly after detected osteoporosis (lovely!) 

I was placed on Femoston 1/10. After a few months I had a full on bleed which I was told was my body getting used to it and it would settle, which it did and every so often I would get light bleeding for a few days. I came off HRT for a little while as I was putting on weight fast. Dipped in and out since so admittedly, my body doesn't know what it's doing.  

I went for a routine smear last month and was shocked it came back as HPV positive with low grade dyskaryosis. I had Lletz treatment in 2003 for moderate dyskaryosis and HPV. The irrational side of me was worried that possibly HPV had remained dormant and had been triggered by something occurring to my body. The rational side of me saw it as a new incidence. Colposcopy is in May.

Last Sunday, I felt a sharp pain to the left of my breast. I felt the area and to my horror, I could feel a large lump to the left of my nipple and the breast itself was tender. The lump itself is painless. The doctor confirmed it on Monday along with a palpable axillary node posterior anterior. She did not offer reassurance that it could be a benign cyst. I went deeeeeeep deep down the rabbit hole with the abnormal smear coupled with a breast lump. I thought that was it for me.

The next day on Tuesday, I woke up (or rather I went to bed, morning came) and I had milky brown discharge similar to that when a period is about to hit. Wednesday, tenderness in my breast all but went away.

By Thursday, I had a full on bleed and the breast was no longer swollen by the end of the afternoon.

I still have an achy armpit and the lump is still very much there. The lump is flattish, it actually feels like more than one lump which along with the painlessness and tender armpit, does worry me. It seems moveable, but I may be hopeful. It can't be seen outwardly. Breast clinic is on Monday. 

Sometimes I think calmly, that the lump and armpit is cyst related and linked to hormones/HRT. 

Other times, that HPV and mild dyskaryosis have mutated quickly/been wrongly identified during testing and is linked to my breast lump in a sinister fashion.

Is it medically possible for mild abnormal cell changes to  become aggressive, cause abnormal bleeding and lead to a breast lump within a matter of weeks (or vice versa) ? 

Any words of wisdom would be welcome. I have been so, so scared and worried this week. 

Sorry for the essay x