Next, feel each breast while standing in the shower. Raise one arm and use soapy fingers of the other hand to feel your breasts. After your shower, feel each breast while lying down on a bed with a pillow under your shoulder. One arm should be raised over your head, and the other arm should reach across to feel the entire breast. Finding a change in your breast can be scary, but most breast changes are not cancer.
Many women have painful swelling in their breasts at the time of their menstrual periods.
It is important to do your breast self-exam a few days after the end of your period when this swelling has gone away. The most important way to find breast cancer early is to get regular mammograms. A mammogram is a breast x-ray. It can find cancers when they are very small. The amount of radiation used in the x-ray is very small and doesn't greatly increase your risk of getting breast cancer.