breastfeeding inverted nipples

my nipples are leaking fluid, should i beworried? this is an important subject. let me share some information with you about this. one of the very common complaints that i dealwith as a breast surgeon is the issue of fluid coming out of the nipple when you are notpregnant and you are not obviously breastfeeding and the kind of fluid that can come out ofthe nipple include things like blood, includes sort of a watery greenish fluid. it can bea rust color fluid. it can actually be milk and yet you are not pregnant and have notbeen recently breastfeeding. it can be almost toothpaste like sticky material that can comeout of the nipple and the people are constantly concern do i have breast cancers, is thisfinding for breast cancer and the answer is

that the typical or usual breast cancer isnot, i repeat not associated with the nipple discharge. this is particularly true for abloody nipple discharge. in fact, the vast-vast majority of bloody nipple discharges are froma benign disorder called an intra meaning inside, ductal inside the duct papilloma fancyword for overgrowth of the tissue that lines the ducts and they get rough you well andthey can discharge blood. now because cancers can in fact do this, we always work thesepatients up completely and the workup would include mammograms, would include an ultrasoundexamination and sometimes, but not very common at all would include a breast mri exam. familyhistory is important that we take that in when we talk about women with nipple dischargesas well. the vast majority of nipple discharges

that i have seen throughout my career areactually women in their 40s and it's associated with fibrocystic changes of the breast, cystsform in the breast, ducts dilate up, there is an entity called ductal ectasia big fancyword for an unknown reason that ducts can dilate up, it can be associated with a nippledischarge. the sticky discharge that i was talking about a minute ago can often comefrom this unusual entity called duct ectasia, so if you do have a nipple discharge, youdo need to be evaluated. you need to see your physician, at a minimum you need an ultrasoundexamination, but it frankly should be coupled with a mammogram particularly if you haven'thad one. now, if we see an abnormality in the ductal system then what is typically doneis what's called the ductogram, a very-very

fine catheter is threaded down inside theduct that we see having the fluid come out of it, we then gently inject a contrast materialso that we can see what's going on inside the duct and often that scheduled on the sameday that surgery is scheduled, so if we see something, we can go immediately to the operatingroom and take it out. once again, vast majority of nipple discharges are not breast cancer.however, they do need to be evaluated, make sure that you see competent, educated physicians,and people dealing with breast disease to have such an evaluation.