How to Check for Breast Cancer at Home: 5 Simple, Safe Steps

Most Nigerian women who find breast cancer find it themselves. Not at a screening centre, and not during a routine check-up, but in the shower or while dressing. So learning how to check for breast cancer at home is not a small thing. It is the single most useful health habit you can build in ten minutes a month.

This guide walks you through five steps. It also tells you what a normal breast actually feels like, because that is the part nobody explains, and it is the reason so many women either panic over nothing or ignore something real. By the end you will know how to check for breast cancer properly, and just as importantly, what to do next if you find something.

Why knowing how to check for breast cancer matters in Nigeria

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Nigerian women. The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates roughly 44,196 new cases and 21,309 deaths in Nigeria for 2024.

Here is the problem. A 2025 review of 11 Nigerian studies found that about 76 percent of patients had already reached stage III or IV by the time anyone diagnosed them. Only 6 percent were at stage I. Yet breast cancer caught early is one of the most curable cancers there is.

The World Health Organization is clear about what works in countries like ours. Because routine mammography screening is not yet practical at national scale here, WHO puts the priority on early diagnosis instead: knowing the signs, and getting checked quickly when something changes. That approach starts with you, which is why knowing how to check for breast cancer at home carries more weight in Nigeria than it does in countries with national screening programmes.

Before you start: what a normal breast feels like

Healthy breast tissue is not smooth. It is naturally lumpy, ridged and slightly uneven, a bit like a bag of small beans under the skin. Many women panic the first time they feel this, but it is ordinary.

Your breasts also change through the month. Before your period they often become fuller, firmer and tender, and some lumpiness comes and goes with your cycle. After your period they usually soften again.

So the goal is not to hunt for lumps. Learning how to check for breast cancer really means learning your own normal, month after month, until anything new stands out immediately.

The best time to check

If you still menstruate, check three to seven days after your period ends, when your breasts are least tender and least swollen. If you have reached menopause, or if your periods are irregular, simply pick the same date every month and keep to it. The first of the month is easy to remember.

How to check for breast cancer at home in 5 steps

Set aside ten minutes. You will need a mirror and somewhere to lie down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 1: Look in the mirror with your arms down

Stand in front of a mirror with your shoulders straight and your arms at your sides. Look at both breasts together. You are looking for changes in size or shape, dimpling or puckering of the skin, redness, soreness, a rash, or a nipple that has changed position or turned inward.

Breasts are rarely a perfect match, and one is often slightly larger. That is normal. A change from how yours have always looked is what matters.

Step 2: Raise your arms and look again

Lift both arms above your head and look at the same things. Raising your arms stretches the skin, so dimpling and puckering that you cannot see with your arms down often becomes visible here. Then turn slowly from side to side and check the outer edges too.

Step 3: Check your nipples

While your arms are still raised, look for any fluid coming from either nipple. Watery, milky, yellow or bloody discharge all matter, particularly when it appears without you squeezing. However, do not squeeze hard or repeatedly, because that can cause discharge in a perfectly healthy breast.

Step 4: Feel your breasts lying down

Lie on your back. Put a folded towel or a small pillow under your right shoulder and place your right hand behind your head. This spreads the breast tissue evenly across your chest, which makes it far easier to feel anything unusual.

Use the flat pads of your left middle three fingers, not the tips. Then work in small circles, using three levels of pressure: light for the tissue just under the skin, medium for the middle, and firm for the tissue near your ribs.

Cover the whole breast in a pattern you will repeat every month. Many women find it easiest to move up and down in vertical strips, like mowing a lawn, from your collarbone down to the top of your ribs and from your armpit across to your breastbone. Do not skip the armpit itself, since breast tissue extends into it and lymph nodes sit there.

Then swap sides and repeat for the left breast with your right hand.

Step 5: Feel again while standing

Finally, repeat the same circles standing up. Most women find this easiest in the shower, because wet, soapy skin lets your fingers glide. Use the same pattern and the same three pressures so nothing gets missed.

The 7 changes that mean you should see a doctor

When you check for breast cancer at home, these are the findings that need a doctor rather than a wait-and-see month. Book an appointment if you notice any of the following:

• A new lump or thickening in the breast or armpit, especially a hard one that does not move easily and does not go away after your next period
• Dimpling or puckering of the skin, or skin that looks like orange peel
• A nipple that has turned inward or changed direction, when it did not before
• Discharge from one nipple, particularly if it is bloody or appears on its own
• Redness, scaling or crusting on the nipple or the skin around it
• A change in the size or shape of one breast
• Persistent pain in one spot that does not shift with your cycle

Most breast pain is not cancer, and cancer is often painless. Even so, pain that stays in the same place month after month deserves a look.

What is probably not cancer

This part matters as much as the warning list, because fear stops women from checking at all. Anyone learning how to check for breast cancer needs to know what benign tissue feels like too.

Most breast lumps turn out to be benign. Fibroadenomas are smooth, firm, rubbery lumps that move easily under the fingers, and they are very common in younger women. Cysts are fluid-filled, often tender, and they frequently change with your cycle. Ordinary hormonal lumpiness comes and goes every month.

So finding a lump does not mean you have cancer. It means you need someone to examine it properly, and the sooner the better.

What knowing how to check for breast cancer cannot do

Here is the honest part, and few articles will tell you this.

Large clinical trials have not shown that formal monthly breast self examination reduces deaths from breast cancer on its own. What it does do is build familiarity, and familiarity is what makes you act quickly when something changes. That speed is exactly what Nigeria is losing at the moment, given how many women arrive at hospital already at stage III.

Therefore treat knowing how to check for breast cancer at home as your first layer, not your only one. Add a clinical breast examination by a doctor or nurse to your routine, ideally once a year from your twenties. If you are 40 or older, ask about mammography where it is available and affordable to you, and ask about ultrasound if you are younger, since dense breast tissue in younger women shows up better on ultrasound than on a mammogram.

What to do if you find something

Knowing how to check for breast cancer at home only helps if you act on what you find. So do not wait to see whether it disappears. Do not treat it with hot compresses, massage or herbal preparations while you wait, either. Instead, follow these steps.

Book an appointment this week. Any hospital, clinic or family doctor can perform a clinical breast examination and refer you onward.

Ask for imaging. Doctors usually order a breast ultrasound for women under 35 and a mammogram for women over 40, sometimes both.

If imaging is abnormal, ask for a biopsy. Only a biopsy confirms or rules out cancer. Scans alone cannot.

Keep every result. Take photographs of each report with your phone and keep the originals in one folder, because you will be asked for them again.

If the news does turn out to be bad, do not let panic decide your next month. Our companion guide sets out exactly what to do in the first 30 days after a breast cancer diagnosis in Nigeria, week by week.

Common questions

Do I need any equipment to check my breasts at home? 

No. Learning how to check for breast cancer at home requires only a mirror, somewhere to lie down and ten minutes. Some women prefer doing the standing check in the shower, because soapy skin lets the fingers move more smoothly.

How often should I check my breasts? 

Once a month is enough. Checking more often makes it harder to notice change, because you lose the monthly comparison. Choose three to seven days after your period ends, or a fixed date if you no longer menstruate.

Are breast lumps always cancer? 

No. Most are not. Fibroadenomas, cysts and normal hormonal changes account for the majority of lumps, particularly in younger women. However, only a doctor can tell the difference reliably, so get any new lump examined rather than deciding for yourself.

At what age should I start checking? 

Start in your twenties. Nigerian women develop breast cancer younger than women in Europe or North America, and the most common age group at diagnosis here is 41 to 50, which means the disease often begins developing well before that.

Can men get breast cancer? 

Yes, although it is far less common. Men should take any lump behind the nipple, nipple discharge or skin change seriously and see a doctor, because male breast cancer is frequently caught late for the simple reason that nobody expects it.

Does a breast lump that hurts mean it is not cancer? 

Not necessarily. Cancerous lumps are often painless, but pain does not rule cancer out. If a painful lump persists beyond one menstrual cycle, have it examined.

Ten minutes a month, and a plan if you need one

Knowing how to check for breast cancer at home costs nothing and takes ten minutes a month. It will not replace a doctor, but it is how most Nigerian women who beat this disease first noticed that something had changed.

At HubPharm Africa we support patients through long-term treatment across Nigeria, with verified medicines, home delivery, refill coordination and pharmacist-led adherence support. If you have found something, or if someone in your family has just been diagnosed, our pharmacists can help you plan the next step.

[Talk to a HubPharm pharmacist →]

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Written by Fawzi Rufai, Medically reviewed by Pharm. Sesan Kareem, B.Pharm, MPA, MBA.

This article is for general information and does not replace examination by a qualified health professional. See a doctor about any new breast change.

References

1. World Health Organization, Breast cancer fact sheet, Global Breast Cancer Initiative.
2. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Nigeria fact sheet, Global Cancer Observatory, 2024 estimates.
3. Nigeria’s 6-year (2018–2023) stage distribution of breast cancer at diagnosis. ecancermedicalscience, 2025.