Breast tenderness and postmenopausal bleeding

[Mamarockon]

I am postmenopausal for 4 years and 52 years old and have never taken HRT. I was having increasing breast tenderness for about a month and then a heavy period-like occurance with immediate relief of the breast pain. I went to my gyn about this and he said that because of the breast pain, the post menopausal bleeding sounded hormonal which would likely mean the ovaries are involved, even though he said he didn't feel any ovarian thing during my exam. I am having a transvaginal ultrasound and he said we need to do a d and c. He also said bad things can happen to good people which made me feel as though he thinks this is a pretty strong signal for ovarian cancer. I am pretty anxious about all this. I am tall and on the thin side of normal weight. There is no cancer in my family  and I have 4 older and one younger sisters. I have three grown children who I breast-fed- the last two for about a year. I took birthcontrol pills when I was younger, but not after my 21 year old was born. My husband had a vasectomy.I can't find anything online to check my symptoms that is not HRT related. What are my odds of being cancerous or not, and if so, does this sound like it might be a very early stage, or not? I am so worried and can't find good info specific to my symptoms.  Thank you for any insight you can give me.

[Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.]

Hi There,
postmenopausal bleeding can be due to a benign growth such as a polyp, a precancerous condition of the lining of the uterus such as endometrial hyperplasia, or a cancer inside the uterus.
The incidence of cancer goes up with age.
At 52, probably less than 10% of women with postmenopausal bleeding have uterine cancer. At age 85, about 75% of women with bleeding have cancer.
It would be unusual for ovarian cancer to manifest as postmenopausal bleeding.

It may be that your symptoms are related to some hormonal type of influence but hormones include thyroid, prolactin, in addition to estrogen.
take care

[Mamarockon]

Thank you so much for responding to my post. I am feeling much less anxious today-thank heaven! I really appreciate your info-very helpful and I find it encouraging.
                                                                        Merci!