Fibroadenoma: What should I know?

I need some real experiences here. To remove or not to remove? Just how dangerous is it really 😢 .....

urbanotter10 said:Has anyone dealt with this before? I'd love to hear some stories—is it actually worth trying to get rid of, or is it too risky to mess with? 😢 .....

Whereabouts are you located?

Breast lumps 😍

Back in the day, doctors used to just cut out every single fibroadenoma they found... but nowadays, how we handle them has changed quite a bit thanks to better diagnostic tech.
I remember seeing a ton of posts about breast health on this forum a few months back... I’m feeling a bit lazy right now, so I can't be bothered to dig up the specific links for you guys.

Basically, an FA is a benign breast tumor, meaning it isn't cancerous.
That said, because they don't always look 100% distinct on an ultrasound or mammogram—sometimes they mimic cancer or even just look like a simple cyst—doctors usually want to do a quick cytological check via a fine needle aspiration (FNAB) just to be absolutely sure.
Most of the time, surgeons won't operate on an FA unless it's getting big enough to actually change the shape of the breast. Sometimes, especially in younger women, an FA can grow large enough to take over the whole area and cause some real disfigurement.
These things are pretty unpredictable; their size can fluctuate depending on where you are in your cycle, and once you hit menopause, they often disappear entirely or sometimes just calcify.
Much like uterine fibroids, they tend to grow during pregnancy... though that's not a universal rule.

The general rule of thumb is that if there's any doubt, you get a biopsy to confirm it's an FA, and then you just keep an eye on it with follow-ups every 6 to 12 months. If it starts growing too fast, there's a chance it could outgrow its own blood supply (ischemia), which can lead to necrosis—basically, it dies off and causes some inflammation.
I've actually noticed that right after a period, they can shrink so much that they barely show up on an ultrasound, only to swell up again around ovulation.

All in all, there's nothing to stress about... it's just like dealing with a breast cyst. 👍

Found a 2 cm lump on my breast. The doctor said she isn't 100% sure if it's a fibroadenoma or just a cyst, but she thinks it’s likely a fibroadenoma. I have to go back in a month so she can check if it's growing.
She hasn't posted any cytology results yet. 😢

Honestly, I’m not out here poking at every single tiny thing either—and let's be real, 2 cm is still pretty small when you think about it.
I don't even go after the clear ones; if they're larger than about an inch, we usually just drain them to make sure they aren't putting unnecessary pressure on the surrounding tissue.
The main reason is that they have a tendency to just shrink back down on their own.
If it starts growing during a follow-up, then yeah, we'll go ahead and biopsy it. If it stays the same, we won't bother. 😍

Thank God for that. I hope it stays this way forever. 🙂

I actually had one back in high school. I had a biopsy done, and the doctor told me that if it wasn't causing any issues, he wouldn't bother removing it. It was about a centimeter at the time, but now? I can't even feel it anymore!

Hopefully, it’s gone for good!!!

🙂

I’ve been dealing with this for about ten years now. It first showed up following my first pregnancy, and I’ve kept a close eye on it through regular checkups ever since, everything appearing perfectly normal. In fact, I managed to navigate through my second pregnancy and sixteen months of breastfeeding with it by my side.😁.
Over the course of those ten years, it has only grown by about 0.5 cm. Honestly, it doesn't bother me at all...

I felt a little lump last summer, and turns out it was just a fibroadenoma. It was about 1.5 cm at the time, so the doctors told me to just leave it alone until I was pregnant (since they said it starts growing faster then). Well, it ended up doubling in size in less than a year, so they finally went ahead and removed it recently. The thing that’s actually bugging me is that apparently there's a pretty high chance of them coming back 😕

I actually went through the exact procedure that Susan Martin24 is describing. It wasn't anything too traumatic, and now I just stick to an annual ultrasound to stay on top of things. During my pregnancy, everything seemed fine—it was pretty much quiet, I guess—but I do deal with mastopathy (if that's even the right term?). It’s honestly such a nuisance and incredibly painful, damn it...

I’ve had mine for about 10 years now. I kept a really close eye on it for a while, but lately, I just monitor it with ultrasounds and everything looks fine. Mine is 7 mm, and my doctor told me there's no need for surgery.

So I went in for my second ultrasound yesterday, but this was with a different doctor. Even though he told me everything looks benign, he’s pushing for a biopsy immediately. What's the point of a biopsy if he already said it's fine? Is the procedure itself actually dangerous?

Just in case...🙂

The doctor probably just wants to be 100% sure about everything since an ultrasound can't always give you the full picture. I wouldn't say a biopsy is harmful. Don't worry, it’s better to get a detailed analysis so you can have some peace of mind. Plus, it doesn't even hurt and it's over in about ten seconds—at least that was my experience. 😘 🙂

Thanks! They actually got it sorted out for me the very same day. It wasn't a huge deal at first.🙂
But then I had people starting to get in my ear, asking why I even let them perform the spinal tap in the first place—as if you shouldn't be messing with that stuff.

Oh, please, let’s not get bogged down in these trivial feminine anxieties. Once the egg retrieval is finally behind you, you can actually enjoy some peace and quiet, rather than lying awake paralyzed by indecision over whether you chose the right path or not.😉

gentlewolf4 said:Last summer, I felt a little lump and it turned out to be a fibroadenoma. It was about 0.6 inches at the time, and they told me there was no need to have it removed until I got pregnant—apparently, they start growing faster once you're expecting.

My doctor actually told me the best thing for cysts and fibroadenomas is to just get pregnant... which, let's be real, isn't exactly a medical cure. 🙄So now I'm confused. One person tells you they grow during pregnancy, and my doc says they disappear? How does that even work?

On my ultrasound, they found at least five of these things—cysts and fibroadenomas. I managed to feel one tiny one, maybe 0.25 inches, but the others were nearly twice that size and I didn't feel them at all. My doctor was honestly baffled that I hadn't noticed them.

Does anyone know if birth control pills are a bad idea when dealing with stuff like this?

That’s simply not the case. I am currently on hormonal contraceptives and have a fibroadenoma that remains completely stable. Besides, my doctor insisted there was absolutely no correlation between the two 🙂

Lisa Richardson8 said:They aren't. I'm on birth control and have this one fibroadenoma that just isn't growing. And my doctor actually told me there's zero connection between the two 🙂

I don't know, everyone’s got their own way of doing things, I guess... but my ultrasound tech suggested I might need to ditch the pill, though they said I should check with my OB-GYN first to see what she thinks. So how is there "no connection"? Honestly, nothing makes sense anymore. 😕

My gynecologist assured me that there isn't actually any correlation between the two, noting that my fibroadenoma hasn't shown any significant changes—it barely grows, maybe a millimeter every couple of years—but I’m dealing with this without them 😁