Every woman wants to know what they can do to reduce their risk of getting breast cancer. While some risk factors for breast cancer, such as being a woman, are unchangeable, other lifestyle factors, like being overweight, are avoidable. Educating yourself as much as possible about breast cancer and embracing screening tests is the best thing you can do for your health. You can also practice a healthy lifestyle to ensure your breast cancer risk is as low as possible. Here are the risks factors of breast cancer you should know.

Being a woman

Being female is a huge risk factor for breast cancer. Although men develop breast cancer, their cases are rare. This is because women’s breasts are fully developed, and they take 3-4years for that to happen. When it comes to men, they never develop fully formed glands, and most male breasts are fat.

When they are fully formed, a woman’s breast is immature and highly active until a woman carries their first full-term pregnancy. Therefore they are highly responsive to estrogen and other hormone disrupters in the environment, which is why breast cancer affects women more.Hong Kong breast cancer screening helps detect any abnormal changes in the breast early.

Age

Like many other forms of cancer, age increases your susceptibility to breast cancer. According to research, two of every three invasive breast cancers are diagnosed in women aged 55 or older. The aging process is the most significant risk factor for cancer because the longer you live, the longer your body is exposed to genetic damage or mutations. With age, your body becomes less able to repair genetic damage. Although you can’t stop the aging process, maintaining a healthy weight, eating nutritious food, exercising, and limiting alcohol can lower your risks of breast cancer.

Family history

You have a higher risk for breast cancer if you have a close relative with it, and the risk is even higher if they are a first-degree relative, such as a sibling or parent. In some situations, a strong family history of breast cancer is connected to an abnormal gene associated with a high vulnerability to breast cancer, such as BRCA1 or BRCA2. Hormonal therapy medication reduces the risk of developing hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer in females at a higher risk. However, you must talk about your options with the doctor. In this case, routine screening is recommended.

Genes

5-10% of breast cancer diagnoses are hereditary, which means that the abnormal genes cone from the parent to the child. Genes refer to short segments of DNA containing the instructions for building proteins that control the structure and function of your body cells. Mistakes or changes in the DNA may give the wrong set of instructions hence a faulty cell growth or function.

Inherited DNA changes are passed from parent to child and are known as mutations. Others happen during a lifetime due to the natural aging process or chemical exposure. Women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations have a high risk of developing breast cancer. Other gene mutations found in families with a strong history of cancer may also increase one’s susceptibility.

Genetic testing is usually available to determine whether you have inherited a gene that exposes you to breast cancer. You can make efforts to lower your risk if you have it. That includes:

• A monthly self-exam.
• A yearly breast exam by your doctor.
• Breast cancer screening every year from the age of 30.
• Hormonal therapy medicine.
• Maintaining a healthy weight.
• Eating nutritious food.
• Limiting alcohol and tobacco use.

Personal history of breast cancer

You are 3 or 4 times more likely to develop new breast cancer if you have been previously diagnosed with the same. It may develop on the same breast or a different area of the same breast. Note that this risk is different from a recurrence of the cancer. In this case, your doctor may recommend medicines to lower your risk of developing new breast cancer. Maintaining a healthy weight and eating healthy can also reduce your risk. Routine Hong Kong breast cancer screening is also recommended to detect any changes early and address them.

Radiation to the chest before age 30

If you had radiation to the chest before age 30 to treat a different condition, you have a higher chance of breast cancer. The level of risk depends on how old you were when you had the radiation; it is even higher if you had it during adolescence when your breasts were developing.

There are also concerns suggesting that women treated with radioactive iodine for thyroid disease also have an increased risk of breast cancer. If you have this risk, it is crucial to make lifestyle choices that can keep the risk as low as possible.

Some breast changes

Being diagnosed with some benign breast conditions increases your risk of breast cancer. they include:

Excessive growth of normal-looking cells which manifests in the following conditions:

• Ductal hyperplasia without atypia.
• Sclerosing adenosis.
• Radial scar.
• Papillomatosis
• Complex fibroadenoma.

Excessive growth of abnormal cells which manifests as:

• Atypical ductal hyperplasia.
• Atypical lobular hyperplasia.

If diagnosed with any of these conditions along with a family history of breast cancer, your risk is 4-5times higher.

Dense breasts

Females with dense breasts are more susceptible to breast cancer than their counterparts. Why? Dense breasts make it harder to see abnormal changes on a mammogram. However, that doesn’t mean any woman with dense breasts will get breast cancer.

Other risk factors

• Exposure to the drug diethylstilbestrol (DES).
• Being overweight.
• Starting menstruation before age 12.
• Using hormone replacement therapy.
• Having the first pregnancy after age 30.
• Never breastfeeding.
• Never having a full-term pregnancy.
• Excessive alcohol and tobacco use.
• Exposure to chemicals that cause cancer.
• Changes in hormones due to night shift working.

conclusion

If you have a higher risk of breast cancer, talk to your doctor about how to lower your risks. Self-tests and routine breast cancer screening are recommended to detect and address abnormal breast changes early. Programs like the Hong Kong cancer fund support affected cancer patients.