Mastitis
From BME Encyclopedia
Mastitis is an infection of the breast tissue, usually — but not always — in women after nipple piercing and other procedures.
Nipple piercing-related factors can lead to serious problems with a woman's breasts: infected milk ducts are a possible risk when dealing with trauma to the nipples. This condition is similar to a problem breastfeeding women can experience.
Minor infections can travel deeper into the tissue quite quickly, infecting milk ducts. Normal signs of an infected piercing may not even be visible. There might be a lump (warm to the touch, possibly discolored) that forms somewhere away from the nipple on the breast.
Antibiotics can often treat them, or, in slightly more serious cases, lancing (like you'd do for a boil) can be done in the doctor's office (also known as I&D meaning incision and drainage). Untreated though, it can easily lead to surgical removal of the infected milk ducts or the entire breast. Worst case, an infection of this type can literally kill you.
A reader wrote in to add,
"In my opinion, there is reason to believe that mastitis may be an unfortunate side effect to having your nipples pierced prior to breastfeeding. I fed my firstborn just fine, with no occurrence of mastitis or any problems whatsoever. I had my nipples pierced after she was weaned, then removed the jewelry before my second child was born (fyi: they were pierced at 14 gauge for approximately 18 months). With my second baby I developed mastitis twice, and the doctor was very surprised to hear that I'd had no occurrence of it before. Due to that fact that it is so rare to get this infection the second time around and general knowledge of how mastitis is caused, I feel that having had my nipples pierced was a strong contributing factor."
In any case, when it occurs it is essential that this type of infection be treated IMMEDIATELY to avoid more serious problems. Another reader wanted to add,
"When I got my nipple pierced, I immediately began experiencing pain when moving my arm or shoulder, the piercer told me he had probably hit a nerve and it would clear up. It took about 4 weeks before I could use my arm without pain, and then about 6 months for the piercing to heal. The very first time I let someone play with my piercing during sex, I developed mastitis within a few days and had to remove the piercing and have I.V. antibiotics to clear the infection as it had become septic. The doctor believes there was a tiny nick on my ring, which scratched the inside of my piercing, and saliva introduced staph bacteria which caused the infection."
Note: Most of the time if you feel a lump not long after the piercing it is just a lymph node that's inflamed from the piercing ... But it's still best to have a doctor check it out.
