A clinical breast examination (CBE) is a physical examination performed by a physician, nurse or trained midwife. Clinical breast exams are relatively inexpensive and are often performed as part of your routine annual checkups.

It is important that you ask for CBE if your healthcare provider does not offer it.

Clinical breast exam is considered an essential part of breast cancer screening for all women. The efficacy of CBE is dependent upon a number of factors including proper positioning of the patient, thoroughness of the search and the area covered, use of a consistent pattern of search, and so on.

CBE can be helpful in detecting a breast mass, particularly among women at normal risk under the age of 40 for whom mammography is not recommended. For women aged 40 years and older, clinical breast exams are an important complement – not substitute – to mammography.

According to Jordan’s national guidelines, women at normal risk ages 20-40 years should get a clinical breast exam every 1-3 years, while women at normal risk ages 40 and older should get yearly clinical breast exams.

If you are a woman at increased risk, talk to your doctor about your many options. Your doctor may suggest that you have more frequent Clinical Breast Exams (CBEs) or that you start getting annual mammograms earlier. Make sure that your doctor follows the National Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnosis Guidelines for Jordan.

CBE involves two main parts:

1. Visual inspection to identify physical signs of breast cancer.
2. Palpation which involves using the finger pads to physically examine all areas of breast tissue including lymph nodes (underarm area) to identify lumps.

During a CBE, be prepared to answer questions related to your medical history, including your screening practices, any breast changes that you have noticed, and your risk.

The physical exam should be done in a private and comfortable room, in the presence of a chaperone if you choose so. You should be underdressed till the waist, and start in a sitting position.



The optimal time for a CBE in a premenopausal woman is 5-10 days after the onset of menses, avoiding the week before the period is preferable. Women who are postmenopausal may have CBE performed at any time. On average, the time required to perform a clinical breast exam ranges from about 6 to 8 minutes.



In the sitting position, the examiner will first visually inspect the breast, initially when you are sitting up right with your arms on your hips, and then with your arms raised over your head.

In both steps, the examiner will be looking for physical symptoms of breast cancer such as dimpling, puckering or bulging of the skin, nipple discharge, among others. Next, the examiner will check your lymph nodes in the underarm areas.

For the second part of the examination, you will be lying down with your hand overhead. The examiner may place a pillow under your shoulder or lower back to ensure an even distribution of breast tissue.
In this position, the examiner will use the finger pads of the middle three fingers to palpate the entire breast, in overlapping circular motions, one area at a time. Both parts of the examination will be repeated on both the left and rights breasts.

For these steps in Arabic, please click here.