I am a 47 year old female. Mother of 2 teenage lads. I have been having this pain in the upper right, axillary area for about 1 year now.If you drew a line from my collar bone down then across to under my arm it is in this area I am getting the pain. It is there all the time. I can pinnpoint the area of apin as it doesn’t change. Its like someone is turning up a dial as the pain is dull, most of the time, but increases for no apparent reason to the point where I have to support the area. I had a mammogram a month ago and they found a fibroadenoma in the left breast and a small cyst in the right breast. Could this pain be something to do with the cyst? I am sitting here holding the area as I type. The area of pain seems to cover avout 1.5 ” diam. I had anecg when I went to my GP with the pain and that was ok. I do smoke about 4 cigarettes a day….I do want to cut those out

Dr. Joshua’s Answer

Diagnosis of pain requires a physical examination — please make an appointment and have your doctor take a look. Without a physical examination there’s nothing to build on. I’ll just mention some of the more usual causes of pain in that region. They include musculoskeletal pain (muscles and bones — due to overexertion, inflammation, muscle tear/scarring, costochondritis…), nerve damage (nerve entrapment/impingement, nerve tumors such as neurinoma, spinal nerve root compression, neuropathy…), pain originating in pleura and lung, and so on… so you see there is such a wide variety of possible causes that it’s not possible for me to make any specific suggestions. A physical examination and a thorough history should be enough to make a diagnosis, and if not, then at least suggest some further investigations or treatment trials that will eventually sort it out. Make an appointment with your primary care physician and keep me posted on developments!