Breast Screening and How To Check Your Breasts

Breast pain is common in women of all ages and is often not a sign of cancer. There’s no special way to check your breasts and you do not need any training.

  • Touch your breasts: can you feel anything new or unusual?
  • Look for changes: does anything look different to you?
  • Check your whole breast area, including up to your collarbone (upper chest) and armpits.

Everyone will have their own way of touching and looking for changes.

Get used to checking regularly and be aware of anything that’s new or different for you.

For a guide on how to check your breasts please take a look at this video from Prevent Breast Cancer below:

Some women diagnosed with breast cancer do not have any symptoms. They are diagnosed after having a mammogram as part of their breast cancer screening programme.

Screening involves testing healthy people for signs that could be due to cancer. It aims to find breast cancers early when they are too small to see or feel. These small cancers are usually easier to treat than larger ones.

Breast screening uses a test called mammography which involves taking x-rays of the breasts. Screening can help to find breast cancers early when they are too small to see or feel. These cancers are usually easier to treat than larger ones.

It is important to remember that screening will not prevent you from getting breast cancer but aims to find early breast cancers.

Overall, the breast screening programme finds cancer in around 9 out of every 1,000 women having screening.

Patients no longer need to contact their GP surgery first if they think they are due a screening, they are now able to contact the team directly. Please click on the link below to find your local breast screening service.

The NHS Breast Screening Programme invites all women from the age of 50 to 70 registered with a GP for screening every 3 years. This means that some people may not have their first screening mammogram until they are 52 or 53 years.

If you are older than 70

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you can still have screening every 3 years but you won’t automatically be invited. To continue to have screening contact your GP or your local breast screening unit.

If you are younger than 50

Your risk of breast cancer is generally very low. Mammograms are more difficult to read in younger women because their breast tissue is denser. So, the patterns on the mammogram don’t show up as well. There is little evidence to show that regular mammograms for women below the screening age would reduce deaths from breast cancer.

Breast screening for transgender or non-binary people

Breast cancer can affect anyone who has even a small amount of breast tissue, this includes men, transgender women, transgender men, non-binary and gender diverse individuals.

The signs and symptoms present similarly to those in born women. The most common symptom is a lump across the chest or the armpit. If a person has had top surgery (also called gender affirming mastectomies) the signs and symptoms may present more like those in men.

If you find a lump or notice any other changes to your chest tissue, it’s important to get checked by your GP as soon as possible. Book an appointment with your doctor, who may refer you to a breast clinic where you will be seen within two weeks.

The screening invitations you automatically receive depend on how your sex is registered with your GP. Any hormones or surgeries you’ve had will impact which screenings are relevant for you.

If you haven’t had a breast screening invitation when you think you should, or you have any further questions, speak to your GP or gender identity clinic.

For Some leaflets about breast cancer, it’s signs, symptoms and how to spot it please check out the leaflets below: