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The medical community has designed a list of several risk factors for breast cancer. While a woman may fall into one of these categories because she has a listed risk factor, it is in no way attempting to tell her future and designate her to become a breast cancer patient. This list was compiled after several decades of research.
Personal Breast Cancer History
If a woman has already suffered breast cancer in one of her breasts, she is more likely to acquire cancer in the other side. Many women choose to have both of their breasts removed even if one is cancer free because of this risk. Some of these women choose to go permanently without breasts and others choose to have implants inserted and once again enjoy a little perkiness.
Family Cancer History
If the other females in a woman’s family have had breast cancer, she is more likely to have it than a woman with no family history of the disease. This risk goes even higher if the relative who had cancer found it before she was forty years old. These relatives can be on her mother’s or father’s side.
Race
Women of European descent have higher incidents of breast cancer than women whose bloodline comes from Africa or Asia.
Lifestyle Choices
If a woman chooses not to have children or has them later in life, she is higher risk than women who had children before the age of twenty five or women who had several children. Also, women who breastfed their child has a lower risk. Women who keep themselves at a healthy weight, do not frequently drink alcohol and remain physically active had fewer incidents of breast cancer.
Being Female
The highest risk factor of all for breast cancer is being a woman. While men do account for some of the new breast cancer cases every year, this disease so dominately effects women that it is rarely even listed as a risk factor.