Questions About Breast Cancer Risks

How Often Should I Go To My Doctor For A Checkup?

You should have a physical every year. If any unusual symptoms or changes in your breasts occur before your scheduled visit, do not hesitate to see the doctor immediately.

How does menstrual and reproductive history affect breast cancer risks?

Women who began their menstrual cycles before age 12, have no children, or had their first child at 30 or older, or began menopause after 55 are at a higher risk.

Are Mammograms Painful?

Mammography does compress the breasts and can sometimes cause slight discomfort for a very brief period of time. Patients who are sensitive should schedule their mammograms a week after their menstrual cycle so that the breasts are less tender.

Kayla Wharton

Family History

Does a family history of breast cancer put someone at a higher risk?

If you have a grandmother, mother, sister, or daughter who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, this does put you in a higher risk group. Have a baseline mammogram at least five years before the age of breast cancer onset in any close relatives, or starting at age 35. See your physician at any sign of unusual symptoms.

Kayla Wharton

Questions About Breast Cancer

Is there a link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer?

There is an increased risk of breast cancer for women under 35 who have been using birth control pills for more than ten years.
Can drinking alcohol increase the risk of breast cancer?

One or two drinks a day has been shown to slightly increase the risk of breast cancer. The greater the levels consumed, the higher the risk.

Does smoking cause breast cancer?

At this point in time there is no conclusive link between smoking and breast cancer. However, due to the number of health risks associated with smoking, quitting can significantly increase survival rates.

Kayla Wharton

How Often Should I Do A Breast Self-exam?

Give yourself a breast self-exam at least once a month. Look for any changes in breast tissue, such as changes in size, a lump, dimpling or puckering of the breast, or a discharge from the nipple. If you discover a persistent lump in your breast or any changes in breast tissue, it is very important that you see a physician immediately. However, 8 out of 10 lumps are benign, or not cancerous.

Kayla Wharton

Can A Healthy Diet Help Prevent Breast Cancer?

A nutritious, low-fat diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. A high-fat diet increases the risk because fat triggers estrogen production that can fuel tumor growth.

Kayla Wharton

Can Physical Activity Reduce The Risk Of Breast Cancer?

Exercise pumps up the immune system and lowers estrogen levels. With as little as four hours of exercise per week, a woman can begin to lower her risk of breast cancer.


All women know exercise is helpful and beneficial to their health, but did you know exercise may also help women combat breast cancer?
Recent research suggests women who exercise regularly, even if that means simply walking for a few hours each week, may be as much as half as likely to die or suffer recurring breast cancer. Why?

Exercise and Breast Cancer

Researchers have known for a long time that exercise is important for our health and wellness. Exercise promotes longevity. It increases our heart or cardiovascular health. It improves pregnancy and labor outcomes.
Exercise is also helpful in combating diseases, including breast cancer. While many patients may not feel like exercising during treatment, exercise may be the key to their long-term survival.

A recent study conducted by the Brigham and Woman's Hospital suggests women that exercise regularly after a diagnosis of breast cancer may live longer than women who do not. This is true whether women exercised regularly or not before their diagnosis.

According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, even small amounts of exercise are useful to any and all women with breast cancer. That means a woman that walks 30 minutes two times a week is going to have a higher chance of survival than a woman that does not walk at all.

This study should prove encouraging especially to women that feel they do not have enough energy to engage in vigorous activity during breast cancer treatment. While one hour a week of exercise does provide benefits however, these are markedly higher for women that can exercise between three to five hours each week.

Women, who do this, according to the BWH study, may reduce the risk of death from breast cancer by half.

Does this mean women should exercise even more? Not so according to researchers. Apparently, after reaching five hours of walking each week, no further benefits were noted in patients participating in this study, which involved 3,000 women studied for more than a decade.

www.breastcancerinformationhelp.com

Kayla Wharton

Significant Increase In Cancer Survival

Cancer survivors in the U.S. numbered 11.7 million in 2007, an increase of 19 percent since 2001, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new report demonstrates an increase in the number of cancer survivors - defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer and is still alive - from only 3 million, 40 years ago.

Preventing cancer and detecting it early remain critically important as some cancers can be prevented or detected early enough to be effectively treated.

Breast cancer survivors - at 22 percent - compose the largest percentage of cancer survivors. Developments such as early detection and improved treatment have contributed to longer survival rates.

At the moment, about 200,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year. Yearly mammograms are recommended for women over the age of 40.
All information from www.breastcancersite.com

Kayla Wharton

Breast Cancer While Pregnant

About one in every one thousand women with breast cancer is also pregnant. This increasing trend - which doubled between 1963 and 2002 - is partly due to women delaying childbirth until they are older.

There are now about 3,500 annual cases of pregnant women diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S., representing 7 to 15 percent of breast cancers in women before menopause.

About 80 percent of doctors recommend that pregnancies continue even if the mother is found to have breast cancer.

Hope for Two is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing resources for pregnant women diagnosed with breast cancer. Those interested in helping with the organization can visit the Breast Cancer Site store for Hope for Two.

All information is from www.breastcancersite.com

Kayla Wharton