In either case, breast fullness may also be accompanied by breast tenderness (mastalgia) or tingling.
He said the hormone carried risks of blood clots, depression, headaches and breast tenderness or enlargement.
Some women disliked the side effects of hormone therapy, such as breast tenderness or bleeding.
The pill's other common side-effects include nausea, headaches, breast tenderness, anxiety, weight gain and, sometimes, decreased libido.
"For example," she says, "PMS could be viewed as the body blues plus bloating, cramps or breast tenderness".
They include fluid retention, breast tenderness, nausea, headaches, mood swings and acne.
Immediate adverse side effects can include nausea, breast tenderness, headaches, and weight gain.
She called a neighbor who had had breast cancer, and asked her whether breast tenderness might be a symptom of malignancy.
The downside is that hormone therapy has significant side effects, including difficulty getting or keeping an erection, hot flashes, fatigue, or breast tenderness or pain.
In the interim, for some women the costs — weight gain, water retention, nausea, dizziness, breast tenderness, headaches, vomiting — outweighed the benefits.
"So you don't get the same side effects as taking the pill, such as changes in mood and breast tenderness," she says.
