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About this tool
Work out the best monthly day for a breast self-check from your cycle, with a step-by-step guide and 12 upcoming dates.
This reminder works out which day of each month is the easiest one to check your breasts, and lists the next twelve. If you have periods it lands the check three days after bleeding stops, when oestrogen and progesterone are at their monthly low and breast tissue is at its least tender and lumpy; if you no longer have a monthly cycle it fixes one calendar day instead. It pairs the dates with the five-step look-and-feel routine used in NHS and Breast Cancer Now breast-awareness material.
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Checks land after bleeding stops, when cyclical swelling and tenderness have settled.
A full year of dates in one list, ready to copy into a calendar.
Five fixed steps, done the same way each month, so a change stands out.
About three to five days after your period ends. Oestrogen and progesterone are lowest then, so cyclical swelling, tenderness and normal lumpiness have settled and a genuine change is easier to feel. If you no longer have periods, pick one fixed day of the month and keep it the same.
No. Self-checking builds familiarity so you notice change early, but it is not a screening test and does not detect what imaging detects. In the US the Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening mammography every two years for women aged 40 to 74; in the UK the NHS programme invites women aged 50 to 71 every three years. Follow whichever programme applies to you.
Change from your own normal — a new lump or thickening in the breast or armpit that stays after a period, a change in size or outline of one breast, skin dimpling or puckering, a nipple that has newly turned inward, nipple discharge (especially bloodstained), or new one-sided pain that does not come and go with your cycle. Any of these should be shown to a doctor.
Yes, very. Most breasts have areas that feel ridged, grainy or rope-like, and that texture changes across the cycle — which is exactly why checking at the same low-hormone point each month matters more than checking often. This tool is informational and cannot tell a normal texture from an abnormal one; a lump that is new, hard, or does not settle after a period should be assessed by a doctor.