breast or not?

[crisgal]

i get pain in the chest area which i always assumed was my heart! after years of panicking quietly to myself, a friend said it could be breast pain - very common apparantly. My question is, how would i know the difference between the two?

[calleach]

Its a bit tricky sorting out chest pain with 5 or 6 main causes but probably 30 -40 all told .See a doc for advice and if neccesary investigation. Very broadly heart pain comes on with effort ,the more effort the more pain.

[FP]

As calleach says there can be lots of reasons.  I have arthritis in the upper spine and neck and often get chest pain as a result of this.  Problems in one area often show themselves up as 'referred pain' in another.