How to Do a Male Breast Exam by a Female

Video Transcript

Although male breast cancer cases are rare compared to women, men do get breast cancer. As a matter of fact, the incidence rate of male breast cancer cases has increased every year since 1975. So women out there, if you're listening, please do me a favor and examine your man's breasts on a routine basis, once a month and check for the same symptoms that you would check for yourself. Although the symptoms are the same, men rarely associate breast cancer symptoms because they don't think that they can get the disease. Unfortunately because of this, male breast cancer diagnoses tend to be in later stages, making treatment more difficult and mortality rates higher. When performing a self exam on your partner, in a supine position, horizontal position, ask your partner to raise his right hand over his head, exposing and lifting his right breast area. The area that you want to pay particular attention to extends from the auxiliary area down to the bottom of the breast tissue, over to the sternum, and again up to the collar bone. When performing the self examination, use the pads of your first two or three fingers, and you want to palpate the skin or the breast tissue, first in the auxiliary area and look again for any abnormalities such as lumps that may be hard or soft, with even or uneven edges. Also, pay particular attention to areas where your partner may say he is sore or tender. Once you've completed examining the auxiliary area, you want to focus on the breast area using a grid fashion, in the same palpating technique, slowly walk your fingers firmly across the breast tissue. A typical examination for a man who's breast tissue is smaller than a woman's, may take anywhere between five to seven minutes. Again, when you're doing the examination, you're not just looking for lumps but you're looking for changes in breast tissue that could include skin puckering, or inversion of the nipple, or nipple discharge. Again, although men get breast cancer at a lesser rate than women, it is important to know that male breast cancer cases are on the rise, and it is your responsibility to inform your husband, or your spouse or partner, that he is still susceptible to breast cancer, and he should perform a monthly breast exam as well.

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