healthmedicinet

Your initial thought when you hear the word “mastectomy” is probably breast cancer. But that’s not why Jamie Pressly underwent the procedure to remove most of her breast tissue a few years ago, as she recently revealed on The Talk. 

“I had something that happened to me years ago, I didn’t know,” she said on the show last week. “I have a high threshold for pain, I was a dancer for 25 years. When I had my son, I got mastitis but I didn’t know, ’cause I thought it was just regular breastfeeding pain,” she told the hosts.

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Mastitis is an infection of your breast tissue that can cause pain, swelling, redness, and bumps, along with a fever and chills, says ob-gyn Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine. Although it’s not super common, Minkin says she sees patients for this about once a month. It usually happens to women who are breastfeeding when bacteria from your skin or the baby’s mouth enter the milk ducts. It can also happen to non-lactating women who are bitten by their partners, resulting in an infection, she says.

But when Jamie noticed lumps all over her breasts, she said she immediately thought she had breast cancer. She went to the doctor and found out the lumps were scar tissue from the infection and had them removed, but the infection mutated into something else and spread causing her to get more breast tissue removed. “I still have some breast tissue left, but almost a full mastectomy,” she said.

MORE: Learning Curves: All About Breast Health 

A case of mastitis that leads to a mastectomy like Jamie’s almost never happens, says Minkin. Usually, if mastitis goes untreated, pus can accumulate in your breast and can be drained by your doctor, but in most cases, the symptoms can be treated with antibiotics, she says. Once you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic, you can help ease the pain or possibly speed up the healing process by soaking in a warm bath or spending time in a hot shower, which helps bring blood flow and antibiotics to the area, she says.

To prevent getting the infection in the first place, Minkin recommends making sure your breast is completely empty when pumping or breastfeeding your baby. It’s also a good idea to alternate between each boob and change the position you use each time you breastfeed, which also helps empty the breast and keeps infections from getting stuck in your milk ducts, she says. Oh, and try to avoid letting your partner bite your breasts.

If you are showing the symptoms for mastitis, especially if you have a fever, make sure you call your doctor right away to have him or her assess you so you don’t risk having the infection get worse, says Minkin.

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