Mastalgia: A narrative literature review of current understanding and management

Abstract

Mastalgia, or breast pain, is one of the most common breast symptoms experienced by women of reproductive age. The cyclical variant of mastalgia is predominant, and patients need proper assessment and management to allay their 2 chief concerns: (1) the severity of pain negatively impacting daily life and (2) the fear of harbouring malignancy. This article presents a brief review of various modalities of management for cyclical mastalgia and emphasizes data collected from peer-reviewed literature published in the last decade. Keywords: mastalgia; breast pain; mastodynia; mammalgia; cyclic mastalgia; noncyclic mastalgia; danazol; tamoxifen; reassurance; visual analogue scale