Risks

Risk Factors – Breast Cancer Facts


First, your one-in-eight lifetime chance of developing the disease increases if you ignore the following facts about breast cancer.

  • home_box_1Never had a child, or if your first child was born after your 30th birthday.
  • Went through menopause after the age of fifty.
  • Had your first period before the age of twelve.
  • Were ever on birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy.
  • Drink more than one alcoholic beverage a day.
  • Live a sedentary lifestyle.
  • Have a family history of the disease.
  • Are post-menopausal and have gained weight.
  • Are obese.
  • Do shift work.
  • Have ever had breast cancer – if so, your chance of developing a new cancer (not a recurrence) increases by three to four times.
  • Smoke. Cigarette smoking, interestingly, has not been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer, but second hand smoke has . . . go figure. Of course cigarette smoking is linked to lung and several other cancers, as well as heart disease.
  • Are aging – and this is one of the most serious of all risk factors.
  • Ever had an abnormal breast exam.

When it comes to breast cancer, the facts speak for themselves. These facts on breast cancer are important because they are commonalities found among women who have indeed been diagnosed with breast cancer.

If you look through the list of breast cancer facts above and you see just one thing that has occurred in your life, you have a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer. Most people, however, could look at that list and find several things that have occurred in their lives, which means they are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their life. How many of those facts about breast cancer can you say yes to?

It’s imperative that if any of those facts on breast cancer are familiar to your life or if you’ve ever had an abnormal breast exam or an abnormal mammogram, you should be more cautious about having testing done to detect breast cancer as early as possible.

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