If there is no fever and no body aches ect, it doesn't appear to me to be bacterial mastitis. (Again, as someone said Ruth Lawrence has some info on this) I have worked with mothers, (and experienced myself) pain, lumpiness and other smpx like these prior to menses. Many women also experience sore and painful nipples. My currently nursing almost 4 year old also complains "I want you to make me more milky" at this time. It usually only lasts a day or three. I would suggest fluids, rest frequent nursing and some Motrin or other antiinflamitory. (In other words treat it like a blocked duct.) One of the docs at Homefirst always insists that women who don't have enough sodium in their diet are more prone to plugs as well as mastitis, I don't know if there is research to this fact, but it seems to hold true. I saw this resolved with adding some sodium to the diet, in the late 80s and early 90s when *too many* people, including pregnant women and nursing mothers, were following a severely sodium restricted diets for no real medical reason. Adding some salt make at least some of these mothers more comfortable. It may be that there is some ductal tissue that does not have an outlet, but why would this only occur during menses? I am thinking this is hormonal, and plugged ducts, whether palpable or not, seem to be more common in some women before menstruation. Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, RLC, LLLL, AAPL Private Practice *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html