This is Let's Be Clear with Shannon Doherty.

Hi everyone, I'm Dr. Amani Jambicar.

I'm the medical director of surgical breast oncology at Krista St. Vincent in

Santa Fe, New Mexico and it is my pleasure to be hosting this episode of Let's

Be Clear. I didn't know or treat Shannon Doherty, but I have a deep appreciation for her advocacy

and for how she encouraged people to get checked for breast cancer early and often.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as y''all know and so today I'll be answering

some questions y'all sent in so let's go ahead and get to it. So the first question

y'all asked is is is puffiness under the arm something to be worried about?

It depends on what you mean by puffiness under the arm, but in general I recommend getting

it checked. There's a few different causes of puffiness under the arm. Sometimes it can be because of a lymph node.

Sometimes it can be because of having extra breast tissue that's actually in the armpit. That's pretty normal.

But if you're not sure what it is, it's worth going to a doctor

and having them check it out. And your primary care doctor can recommend you see a breast

specialist or a surgeon who operates on breast cancer like me who can help get

imaging get an ultrasound done and figure out exactly what it is. So the second

question I have is do you think that hormone replacement therapy

increases or decreases the risk of breast cancer? And that's a little bit of a

complicated question. Studies have shown that it slightly, very slightly, increases the risk for breast cancer,

but in my practice where I see patients who are potentially high risk for breast cancer as well,

I don't recommend that anyone not do hormone

replacement therapy because of that very, very small increase in risk for a

...