10 Facts You Might Not Know about Breast Cancer

Published: October 24, 2009Posted in: Body
Amanda
By
Amanda

So every­one knows October is the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but being aware of breast can­cer isn’t the same as know­ing about myths and facts about breast can­cer. Beauty isn’t just about makeup and skin­care — with­out health, there’s no way we can glow from within. Cancer surely doesn’t sound pretty, but it’s impor­tant for all of us to have suf­fi­cient knowl­edge about it to pro­tect our­selves. So here are 10 facts and myths you might not know about breast can­cer:

1. Every 13 min­utes, a woman some­where in the world dies of breast cancer

2. Breast implants, con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, does not increase risks of breast can­cer. While stan­dard mam­mo­grams might not work as well to detect lumps, stan­dard x-rays could be used to fully exam­ine breast tissues.

breast-cancer-ribbon3. The first sign of breast can­cer usu­ally shows up on a woman’s mam­mo­gram before it can be felt or any other symp­toms are present.

4. Breast can­cer is not monop­o­lized by women — approx­i­mately 1400 cases of breast can­cer will be diag­nosed in men a year and 400 of those men will die.

5. Ninety-six per­cent of women who find and treat breast can­cer early will be cancer-free after five years — so begin your breast self-exam and annual checkup early!

6. Oral con­tra­cep­tive pills might increase risks of get­ting breast can­cer, BUT 10 years after dis­con­tin­u­ing use of oral con­tra­cep­tives the risk is the same as for women who never used the pill.

7. Breast can­cer is actu­ally not the lead­ing killer of women — Breast can­cer kills roughly 40,000 women a year in the United States but stroke (96,000 deaths), lung can­cer (71,000), and chronic lower res­pi­ra­tory dis­ease (67,000) are each respon­si­ble for more deaths annually.

8. One in eight women will get breast can­cer in her life­time — it’s eas­ier than hit­ting the jack­pot in Vegas.

9. Being over­weight or obese does increase your risk of get­ting breast can­cer, espe­cially if you are past menopause or have gained weight later on in life. More rea­sons to go exer­cise and get healthy ladies!

10. There is no evi­dence that hav­ing an abor­tion would increase your risk of get­ting breast can­cer, despite many cam­paign mes­sages by pro-life organizations.