My Achy Breaky Breasts

This article is stacked... (with info)!

Tattoo is Canva AI-generated, image from Canva.

I usually come up with my own article ideas, but I owe this one to

Jess Mujica

of Go With The Flow: Women’s Cycle Awareness. She was having a particularly difficult day lugging around her heavy, bloated boobies and suggested I write my next article about how our breasts are affected during perimenopause. Jess, this one’s dedicated to you (she also came up with the title, My Achy Breaky Breasts)!

Before I started writing this article, I consulted The Menopause Society’s The Menopause Guidebook (9^th Edition, 2020) to see what they had to say about breast symptoms in perimenopause. I was shocked to find out what they had to say… nothing!

There was a lot of information about breast cancer but nothing about breast symptoms or changes. They just released the 10^th edition, which I still need to purchase, so maybe they’ve updated it.

I joke that I no longer need to step on the scale to figure out my weight because I use which direction my nipples are pointing instead. However, breast changes are more complicated than the direction in which your nipples are pointing.

This article covers the changes that happen in perimenopause and menopause. And, I promise, in true Periprofessional form, it won’t fall flat. I’ll provide ample information in my no-nonsense, perky way. Perimenopause breast info or bust!

Let’s bounce, peri-pausies!

What’s inside of breasts?

Your breasts are made up of fatty tissue and connective tissue. There are no muscles; however, behind them are the muscles of the chest (Anyone over 50 remembers, “We must, we must, we must increase our bust.”).

Breasts also contain a system of milk-forming tissue, which includes ducts (tubes) and lobes.¹

What breast changes you may notice in perimenopause?

• Tenderness

• Swelling

• Stabbing

• Tingling

• Heavy

• Nipple pain or tenderness

• Itchy

• Irritated skin

• Sweaty

• Visual changes to breast density

• Feeling bumpy texture

• Color changes, deepening of the areola, the area around your nipple

• Shape and size changes

• Nipples pointing downward, not outward

• Feeling flatter than normal

• Growing hairs

• Nipple discharge

• Your typical PMS breast tenderness may intensify or occur out of cycle from your period

I just *love* that feeling when I’m dealing with swollen PMS breasts and pull off my bra for the day. It’s like two jugs being let loose from my chest.

Have you checked your melons lately?

It’s important to stay up on breast exams and mammograms during perimenopause if you’re able to. Because of the changes in breast tissue during this time, lumps, nodules, and cysts can form that should be examined. There are a number of things that can cause the lumps other than cancer.

Please see your doctor if you’re having any concerning breast changes.

What are the changes happening in perimenopause and menopause?

• Overall skin changes, including in breast tissue, cause skin to thin out and lose its elasticity, which causes sagging.²

• Nipples may enlarge during perimenopause. You may see other changes similar to pregnancy in perimenopause, in general, but also especially with your breasts.

• The section under your breast, called the inframammary fold, becomes more pronounced as the breast begins to sag. This section can get very sweaty and develop a yeast infection, which appears as a red, itchy rash.

• Your milk ducts and lobes, which produce and transport milk, begin to shrink.

• Skin can become drier, less elastic, and less supportive overall.

✨ Fun fact! Breast sagging has a medical term: breast ptosis (the P is silent “toe-sis”)

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Can anything be done?

These changes are permanent unless you want to investigate plastic surgery to lift your breasts. Breast sagging is not an indication for starting hormone therapy. Losing weight if you’re overweight, as well as exercises to strengthen the chest wall muscle, may help slow down the development of breast sagging.

If you smoke, you may want to consider quitting. Smoking has an effect on your breast skin, aging you quicker. Smoking can also increase cell damage within your breast that can accumulate and cause abnormal cell growth.³

The good news is that breast discomfort should settle down after the whirlwind tour of perimenopause hormonal havoc.

Like the push on social media about normalizing aging hands, we should also consider that aging breasts are going to look different than our younger versions. They are still beautiful, just in a different way.

Did I cover everything?

Sorry, just couldn’t help myself. Boobie references are fun. After consulting many of my menopause books, it appears that breast changes during perimenopause are not often talked about.

It made me wonder if perhaps women just attribute it to period symptoms, or since we’ve likely experienced breast tenderness before, it’s not a new feeling, so we don’t give it much thought.

Have you had any “different for you” breast symptoms during perimenopause? That would be YES for me.

Would you like to answer the poll?

Be well, stay cool…

Shelby Tutty, MHA
Certified Perimenopause Educator
Founder of The Periprofessional, LLC

Disclaimer, Content Use Policy, Privacy Policy

1. Faubion, Stephanie. The New Rules of Menopause. Mayo Clinic Press, 30 May 2023.

2. Kaye, Philippa. The Science of Menopause. Penguin, 15 Oct. 2024.

3. Bhatti DS, Bokhari MHT, Khan MAA. Smoking and Fibrocystic Changes in the Breast: A Case Report of a Lifelong Smoker and Changes in Breast Parenchyma. Cureus. 2022 Jun 28;14(6):e26384. doi: 10.7759/cureus.26384. PMID: 35911296; PMCID: PMC9329828.