Breast exams help doctors check that everything's normal. During a breast exam, a doctor or nurse practitioner will feel a woman's breasts to check any lumps and bumps and see if there are changes since the last exam. Doctors don't usually start doing breast exams until a woman is in her 20s. Most teens don't need breast exams. That's because it's rare for girls to have breast problems. Doctors usually just look at a girl's breasts during her yearly gyn checkup to see where she is in her development.

You may have many changes in your breasts as a teen and young adult. Some changes are linked to your period. Others are linked to birth control pills, or to other hormonal forms of birth control. In some cases, changes may happen at any time for no clear reason. Most breast conditions are not cancer.

Puberty is the stage of adolescence when your child starts to develop physically into an adult. During puberty, a girl's breasts begin to grow. As the breasts develop, problems like lumps or infections sometimes occur. These problems can be alarming. But they are common and rarely serious.

When I was about 21, I felt a hard place at the top of my right breast. Of course, I started worrying that I might have breast cancer, but I was too scared to call the doctor about it. When I went for my next check-up, I told him I found a lump. He acted like I should know the difference between a muscle and a lump, but how would I know? No one had ever explained to me what lumps feel like and what I should be looking for.