Introduction
As pulling in the chest one summarizes shooting and light to moderately strong pain into the chest or however into the chest. Chest pain can have different causes. A clarification is often not necessary if the pain disappears after a short time. When and whether one should carry out a clarification of the pulling chest pain during pregnancy depends on how long the complaints have existed, whether there are accompanying symptoms, what the general condition of the woman is like and whether the complaints have appeared again during pregnancy or whether corresponding complaints have existed before.
Causes
During pregnancy there are numerous hormonal changes and adjustments of the body. Metabolic processes of the woman are rearranged and optimized in order to protect and care for the growing child in the womb in the best possible way. Pregnant women suffer relatively often from breast complaints.
However, it is important to differentiate whether it is a pulling into the rib cage or into one or both breasts. Since the female breast also increases in size during pregnancy for hormonal reasons, it very often causes stretching pain and pulling pain in the breast. The reason for this is hormonal changes in the body.
The mammary glands are already prepared to produce the breast milk, which is vital for the child, after 9 months of pregnancy. Often the tissue of the breast is also painful under pressure and hardened. As the pregnancy progresses, the position of the internal abdominal organs also changes, because the child increases in size, causing shifts in the abdominal area.
These changes can also cause irritation of the nerves that supply the chest wall, which can then lead to pulling unpleasant pain. Likewise, as the pregnancy progresses, the woman’s weight also increases. She also adopts different postures when walking, standing and sitting than before.
This can lead to tension in the area of the rib cage and the breast. It is important to differentiate whether the female breast or the rib cage is affected. After all, pulling into the rib cage can always come from the heart.
Young pregnant women can also suffer from an undiagnosed heart disease, even if rarely, and become symptomatic by chance during pregnancy. A heart attack or narrowed coronary arteries (angina pectoris) are extremely rare in young pregnant women, but should be listed here for the sake of completeness as a cause. The most common cause of pulling into the breast in pregnant women is a hormonal change.
Pulling into the female breast can be a typical sign of menstruation as well as occur when a new chest pain is rare in women who have been having their period for a long time. In most cases, the symptoms during menstruation are always similar and known to women. Breast pulling as an early sign of pregnancy can occur very often and is also due to a hormonal change.
In the case of unusual new breast pain without accompanying symptoms such as shortness of breath, etc., the breast should first be examined (palpated). This can be done by the woman herself or she can go to a gynecologist. A pregnancy test should also be carried out.
In addition, an ultrasound of the breast can also be offered in addition to a palpation examination. If the palpation and ultrasound findings are inconspicuous, a mammography (X-ray image of the breast) is usually not necessary. If a pregnancy test is positive, this can explain the pulling discomfort in the breast, further treatment of the pain is then usually not necessary.
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