This past week, someone close to me had a breast cancer scare. Yes, cancer. The word alone chills you to the bone. With a history of breast cancer at a young age in my own family, the possibility of someone my age being diagnosed was terrifying. Though her masses were found to be benign, hearing about her experience brought up a topic we don’t really like to discuss.
For many of us college students, breast cancer feels like a far away problem reserved for older women. The truth is, having this dialogue with college women is extremely important because most girls don’t think that it can happen to them, and in turn tend to neglect the early detection measures that save lives.
Before you write this off, be warned, this is not a breast cancer awareness piece; this is a call to action to check yourself now. Though young women make up a small percentage of breast cancer patients, those who are diagnosed often face more aggressive cancers that are harder to detect and treat.
Our society makes millions of dollars off of pink merchandise in the name of awareness of a disease that effects one in eight women. The problem is, buying a pink hat with a ribbon on it doesn’t save lives. Awareness of breast cancer just isn’t enough.
What many people don’t know, is that modern cancer research largely neglects funneling their funds into cancer prevention and finding out why we get breast cancer. Most existing studies do show that the big risk factors include pregnancy, age, and family history, but what about the women diagnosed who don’t fit into those categories?
For the majority of us in our early 20s, we haven’t had children, and we don’t fall into the risky age group. To make matters worse, diagnosing breast cancer in younger women is even harder because tissue in the breast is more dense than the breast tissue in older women. Usually, by the time a lump in a younger woman’s breast can be felt, the cancer often is in a more advanced stage.
The first thing you need to do right now to protect yourself is to know your family history. With the school year coming to an end, it may be a good time to sit down and talk about it. Having a family member with the disease doesn’t mean that you will be diagnosed, but it does suggest that you may have a higher chance of developing it than someone without a history. Obviously you can’t change your genes, but knowing that you have a higher chance of being diagnosed, being diligent, and watching for signs is vital to increase your odds of survival.
Within my own family, my grandmother didn’t have any family history when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 30s. Aside from just relying on your genes, another crucial step in early detection is doing self-checks. Doing a self-exam has is a really easy way for women to understand what’s normal for their body and recognize any changes. You can find tips for proper self exam technique here, but rather than stressing about following strict directions and not checking at all, its more important to check yourself in a less systematic approach when you’re getting dressed or when you’re in the shower.
Most importantly, for your overall health, don’t neglect your regular checkups. For most of us, we don’t step foot into the doctor’s office unless we are really sick. The American Cancer Society says that beginning at age 20 women should have a clinical breast exam as part of their regular health exam every three years. As far as mammograms go, most experts don’t suggest having your first mammogram until age 40. That being said, if you do have a higher risk of breast cancer or a family history you may want to talk to your doctor about screening before then.
With the end of the school year approaching, we are all pledging more “me” time. Now that you have time to focus on taking care of yourself, catching up on sleep, eating home cooked meals, and unwinding, don’t neglect seeing your doctor while you’re home and taking responsibility for your health.
1,200 women under 40 still die every year from breast cancer. Don’t be a statistic. Don’t think that it can’t happen to you. Simply being aware of breast cancer wont save lives. Know your family history, check yourself, and for goodness sake don’t neglect visits to your family doctor or OB-GYN.
Sources:
http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/guide/breast-cancer-young-women?page=2
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2894028/
http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/famhistory/resources/faq.htm