Breast self-exams can be a part of your breast health plan. However, a comprehensive breast health plan should also include clinical breast exams and regular mammograms, as recommended by the American Cancer Society.

How to Examine Your Breasts

• Lie down and place your right arm behind your head.
• Use the finger pads of the three middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in the right breast. Use overlapping dime-sized circular motions of the finger pads to feel the breast tissue.
• Use three different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue. Light pressure is needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin; medium pressure to feel a little deeper; and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs. A firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast is normal. If you’re not sure how hard to press, talk with your doctor or nurse. Use each pressure level to feel the breast tissue before moving on to the next spot.
• Move around the breast in an up-and-down pattern, starting at an imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the middle of the chest bone. Be sure to check the entire breast area, going down until you feel only ribs and up to the neck or collar bone.
• Repeat the exam on your left breast, using the finger pads of the right hand.
• While standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing firmly down on your hips, look at your breasts for any changes of size, shape, contour or dimpling.
• Examine each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your arm only slightly raised so you can easily feel in this area.

Remember, if you find any changes, see your doctor right away.

Adapted from instructions provided by the American Cancer Society.