Do birth control pills worsen or cause benign fibrocystic breast conditions?
They do not seem to. In fact the incidence of fibrocystic change seems to be less on oral contraceptives, especially at today’s low doses (2, 3). What treatments are there to lessen fibrocystic breast changes? The most effective treatment of fibrocystic breast changes is an anti-estrogen called tamoxifen (12, 13). This drug is also used in the treatment of breast cancer. It is very likely that raloxifene (Evista) which is very closely related to tamoxifen, also improves fibrocystic breast conditions. I have not seen any studies using raloxifen yet, however. Danazol which is an androgenic hormone has also been used to improve pain associated with cystic change (14), but in a comparison trial, it was not as good as tamoxifen ( 15) To summarize the steps you should take to lessen the pain and fullness from fibrocystic breast change: • Make sure you are at zero caffeine by examining everything you ingest including asthma and pain medicines. For most women, this is the only treatment needed
