Some women receiving COVID-19 vaccines have seen swelling in their lymph nodes that has been picked up by mammograms.
“You have lymph nodes above and below your collarbone,” Dr. Devon Quasha said of her experience with the side effect, according to CNN. “You don’t want to feel those. It was scary when I felt it.”
Quasha was scheduled for a diagnostic mammogram after noticing a lump in her left breast, but her radiologist was more concerned with the white blobs that showed on her lymph nodes, which the mammogram picked up.
Shortly before Quasha’s scheduled mammogram appointment, the Moderna vaccine became available to healthcare workers. Quasha received the first dose a week before her appointment, and after a couple of days, she noticed that her left arm began to hurt.
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Quasha then noticed swelling developing where her lymph nodes were located on the left side of her body — the same side that she received the shot. Knowing that lymph nodes activate when the body is fighting infection, she knew it was likely a reaction to the vaccine, but she couldn’t be sure.
While Quasha and her doctor discussed the findings and opted not to show alarm at first, many similar cases have been popping up all over the country.
“We all started talking about it, and it was like a wildfire,” said Dr. Connie Lehman, the head of breast imaging at Massachusetts General’s department of radiology. “I cannot tell you how many women are showing nodes on mammograms and people thought it was going to be not that common.”
What doctors found in Quasha’s mammogram would typically be cause for great concern, but similar instances have spread as more women receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The scans have caused some patients to unnecessarily worry, but experts caution that biopsies aren’t always necessary.
“We wanted to advocate that women don’t always need to have a biopsy,” said Dr. Lars Grimm, associate professor of radiology at Duke University School of Medicine. “Because, oftentimes, the default if you see swollen lymph nodes in a patient would actually be to recommend doing a biopsy.”
“When you hear hoofbeats, don’t think zebra,” Lehman agreed. “If a woman had a vaccine in the arm on the same side, and the lymph nodes are swollen, this is a normal biological response. It’s totally expected. It just doesn’t make sense to start imaging.”
Grimm said that women may want to receive the biopsy just to be on the safe side, something that could reassure many of them that there is not a larger problem.
“You actually have some women who want to biopsy,” he said. “You might tell them, ‘Hey, I think this is due to your COVID vaccine, and I’m sure that it’s going to resolve in a few weeks on its own, and you’re going to be fine.’ But that patient tells you, ‘I’m not going to be comfortable waiting. I want to know now.'”
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Many women will experience similar symptoms as the vaccines become more widespread, something Quasha said she found reassuring in her case.
“I was very reassured,” Quasha said. “The point here is that there are a number of side effects from the vaccine which are not dangerous but can sometimes increase patient anxiety.”
