Breast Cancer: Are You at Risk?
The answer is yes.
About 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. Risk factors include:
- Your Age: As you get older, your risk increases. By age 70, the chances of developing breast cancer during the next 10 years is 1 in 26.
- Your Family History: Having a mother, sister or daughter with breast cancer doubles a woman’s risk. But remember: less than 15% of women with breast cancer have a family history.
- You Have Dense Breast Tissue: The risk can be up to 2x higher for women with dense breast tissue.
- You Use Alcohol: A woman who has 2 to 5 drinks each day doubles her risk for breast cancer.
- Other risk factors include being overweight, lack of physical exercise, birth of a first child after age 35 and having hormone therapy after menopause.
Source: American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute
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