Severe nipple pain is painful, but it’s not dangerous. Aside from dealing with pain, the real stress for patients comes with the concern that this pain is a symptom of something bad happening to their breast or body.
If something you are doing with breastfeeding or your breasts is making you have more pain rather than less, stop doing it. Most commonly, this involves pumping, overfeeding on a breast that feels like it has a “plug,” or massaging the breast. Refer to the Mastitis post for advice on how to better manage “plugs.” If you have nipple pain, this needs to be addressed and resolved. Traditional remedies that are suggested to “treat” the pain may in fact make it worse; you can read more about this on the If You Feel Silly Doing It… post. Consult these recommendations for nipple care and ensure you aren’t doing more harm than good.
If your nipples and breasts look completely normal (i.e. there are no concerns such as nipple trauma, dermatitis, or blebs) but you are suffering from stabbing, shooting, burning, gnawing pain that may feel like electric shocks moving into your breasts or back, you have neuropathic nipple pain. Neuropathic (nerve-related) has very specific features, and can be the same in the breast as it is in shingles, sciatica, diabetic neuropathy, or even the searing nerve pain of a dental cavity.
