Symptoms: Breast or nipple pain that's stabbing, burning, or feels like pins and needles—both during and after nursing—can be the result of a vasospasm, when contracting blood cells reduces blood flow to a particular area. You may also notice your nipples turning white, then blue or red.
Changing hormone levels can cause changes in the milk ducts or milk glands. These changes in the ducts and glands can cause breast cysts, which can be painful and are a common cause of cyclic breast pain. Noncyclic breast pain may be caused by trauma, prior breast surgery or other factors.
What does vasospasm with breastfeeding feel like? Women with vasospasm commonly describe it as an intense, throbbing, burning type of pain in their nipples. When the blood vessels in the nipples are affected by vasospasm, pain can be felt before, during or after breastfeeds.
Remember, while breast pain can be alarming (and uncomfortable), it's usually not an indicator of breast cancer. If you experience ongoing pain, or if your pain seems to be getting worse, it might be time to schedule a visit with your doctor for a breast exam.
Breast pain that is described as burning, stabbing, and/or sharp, may be due to fibroadenomas, breast cysts, infection of the breast (mastitis), or breast abscesses.
Check if you have mastitis
a swollen area on your breast that may feel hot and painful to touch – the area may become red but this can be harder to see if you have darker skin. a wedge-shaped breast lump or a hard area on your breast. a burning pain in your breast that might be constant or only when you breastfeed.
Breast tenderness or warmth to the touch. Breast swelling. Thickening of breast tissue, or a breast lump. Pain or a burning sensation continuously or while breast-feeding.
Vasospasm tends to last for longer periods of time than nipple blanching and does not go away even with good attachment at the breast during feeds. Cold is usually the trigger for vasospasm. This happens when your baby stops breastfeeding and pulls off the breast exposing your nipple to the cooler air.
Nipple vasospasm is a narrowing of blood vessels in the nipple. It can be triggered by a baby breastfeeding in a shallow latch and can cause burning, stabbing or itching pain in the nipples after a breastfeed.
Answer. A stinging sensation in one or both breasts is most often a hormonal issue. If you're pre-menopausal, hormone levels can fluctuate quite a bit; and this can lead to breast pain, tenderness, soreness, sometimes itching, and stinging.
There are several reasons why breastfeeding might hurt. The most common reason for breastfeeding to hurt is if a baby isn't latched correctly leading to sore or damaged nipples, deep breast pain or both. Once cracked or grazed, nipples are more susceptible to infections, another possible cause of ongoing pain.
Cyclical breast pain
This is linked to changes in hormone levels and mainly affects premenopausal women. It may be associated with heaviness, tenderness, pricking or stabbing pains and can affect one or both breasts or the axillae. This type of pain is common and often self-limiting.
It can occur during the transition from sleep to waking, during an episode of stress or anxiety, or as a result of hyperventilation. It can be triggered by various legal and illegal drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamines, anti-migraine drugs, and herbal supplements like Ephedra or bitter orange.
Vasospasm is a serious problem, especially when it affects the blood vessels of the brain or the heart. When there is a high risk of vasospasm, medical treatments are used to prevent it, and the condition is monitored so that early signs of vasospasm can be identified and treated.
Your doctor can diagnose mastitis based on a physical exam. The fever and chills give it away, as does a red, wedge-shaped area on the breast that points toward the nipple.
Don't ignore your other breast while trying to get rid of mastitis or it too can become infected or get blocked ducts.
Antibiotics can usually cure mastitis. For women who are nursing, continued breastfeeding (or pumping) can help. If mastitis is not treated, a pocket of pus may form in the breast and need to be drained.
If you catch the early signs of mastitis, it's quick and easy to treat. If the pain continues for more than a few days, it may be a sign that you've got an infection, and it's time to make a GP appointment. Your GP may prescribe a course of antibiotics, which should clear up the infection in a few days.
“If a plugged milk duct persists [for longer than two days] and there's no relief, there's a chance it can develop into mastitis,” Kramer says. “With mastitis a mother develops a fever (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit), begins to feel fatigued and achy and should seek medical attention immediately.”
Symptoms of plugged ducts, mastitis
Plugged duct symptoms progress gradually, and can include pain, a hard lump, a warm and painful localized spot or a wedge-shaped area of engorgement on the breast. Mastitis symptoms appear rapidly and include flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, fatigue and body aches.
Other causes of breast pain
medicines like the contraceptive pill and some antidepressants. conditions like mastitis or a breast abscess. pregnancy. hormone changes during the menopause.
A newborn should be put to the breast at least every 2 to 3 hours and nurse for 10 to 15 minutes on each side. But rather than worry about duration, it's important to know that the best way to ensure that the baby is getting enough breast milk is by feeding frequency, wet and dirty diapers, and weight gain.
How Long Does Nursing Take? Newborns may nurse for up to 20 minutes or longer on one or both breasts. As babies get older and more skilled at breastfeeding, they may take about 5–10 minutes on each side.