What Causes Painful Nipple With Redness?

Posted on Wed, 30 Jul 2014

Question: I've had a painful nipple for about 3 weeks. It is red and looks larger then the other one. When I wear a white tee shirt I can tell that it does have a slight amount of discharge. I am a 56 year old male and don't drink or smoke. I had radiation therapy on upper mantel when I was 23 for Hodgkin s disease which in remission.

I'm concerned this may be cancer or something serious.

Answered by Dr. T Chandrakant (41 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Step-by-step approach

Detailed Answer:
Hi.
Thanks for your query.

The history is for only three weeks- there is slight discharge- Te nipple is painful, red and larger than the other- radiation therapy was 33 years ago for Hodgkin's which is in remission.

I would suggest the following::
*Have a 1 week to 3 week course of an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and antihistamine; see the response.
*To make the slides of the discharge for gram staining and malignant cells.
*FNAC may be a bit painful but can be done by a no 26 needle.
*As this is already seen by a Dermatologist- I would like to know what is his opinion and the treatment He has offered.

* All these measure will help for the treatment if it is a benign (non-cancerous) lesion. If there is no result with the above measures or any of the tests suggests a chance of malignancy as you are bothered , you can please go ahead with the Excision biopsy, histo-pathological examination and definitive treatment.
* I hope there are no lymph nodes in the corresponding armpit (axilla).

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T