When Your Breasts Hurt

We break down the types of pain and their causes.

Your breasts feel tender before your period.

It's the result of normal hormone changes that happen a week or two before your flow. Relieve it by cutting back on caffeine or taking an anti-inflammatory painkiller.

You have sharp pain in one breast only.

It may be a sign of a breast infection, which can happen if you've bumped it accidentally. See your gyno, who can give you antibiotics.

One or both breasts ache after sex.

The likely scenario: Your guy was rough with your rack without you realizing it in the moment.

Source: Jennifer Ashton, Ob-Gyn in Englewood, New Jersey, and CBS News Medical Correspondent

- from Cosmopolitan Magazine, July 2009