Upper back pain
Questions about upper back pain the way people actually ask them, answered by a physical therapist. Every answer says which signs need a doctor, what to do today, and how to check the thing that causes most of it: how you sit.
Why do I get upper back pain, and is it different for women?
Most likely not, and you are describing the most common upper back pain there is. An ache between the shoulder blades that builds through a desk day, with no injury behind it, is nearly always the muscles that hold your shoulders and head up getting tired of doing it in a bad position. There are a few causes worth knowing about, and a short list of signs that mean you should see a doctor instead of reading on.
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I've had upper back pain for a few weeks. Could it be cancer?
Cancer is a rare cause of upper back pain, and the pain on its own is not what tells you. What tells you is the company it keeps. Below is the list of signs that mean book an appointment rather than read further. If none of them fit you, that does not prove anything either, but it does mean the far more likely explanations are worth understanding, and most of them come down to how you sit.
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If you sit at a screen
Take the load off your upper back.
Most of the pain on this page starts with how you sit. Posture AI monitors from the camera you already have and chimes the second you slump, so the muscles holding you up stop holding it all day.
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