October is spooky season; it’s for Halloween costumes, haunted houses and horror movies. However, the biggest fright of my life came back in September, and it was not a trick or a treat.
October isn’t just the month of Halloween, it’s also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. When I was 8 years old, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time I didn’t understand what cancer was, but as I got older I learned how serious it can be and how physically and mentally exhausting treatment is. So you can imagine how absolutely terrified I was to find lumps in both breasts at age 20. I was two-and-a-half hours away from home with no familiar doctors and no family, and I was in a constant state of worry for two weeks. Through the process of multiple doctor’s appointments and testing to figure out what was going on, I learned a lot of really important information about my health that I never knew before.
It turns out that it is actually super normal to have fibrous breasts if you’re under the age of 50, which means that having lumps is pretty common. It’s also pretty uncommon to be diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40. Discussing this with a lot of my friends led to the realization that breast cancer and regular breast checks are not on most young people’s radar.
Although I did check pretty regularly before having this experience, I didn’t know when to check. One week after your period is when you are supposed to perform a breast check because there are so many factors that can attribute to a fibrocystic breast change, and your period can also make lumps go away. I didn’t know how to properly check either. This meant that while I did have lumps, the way I checked for them made them appear a lot bigger, which led to a lot of unnecessary stress.
The median age for women to be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States is 62, but there is a risk of having cancer at a younger age. My mom was in her 40s when she was diagnosed. There are two ways to categorize breast cancer: hereditary and sporadic. Hereditary breast cancer is passed through genes, primarily BRCA (bra-ka), from family members. Sporadic cancer has no clear cause, meaning no genetic mutations. There is currently no way of knowing what actually causes breast cancer, it is believed that it can be a result of lifestyle choices and exposures.
My mom’s breast cancer was sporadic, so I have no risk of it genetically. Based on my mother’s sporadic diagnosis, my age and other factors, my doctor was able to calculate my overall lifetime risk. Risk numbers will alter with age and other factors, but this number is used to determine when it’s necessary to start doing more screening, like ultrasounds and MRIs.
Although there is no data to show that self-breast exams decrease diagnosis time, they are recommended, and checking monthly is important. Most exams performed by professionals are only once a year, and a lot can change within that time. Statistically, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, so any way to possibly diagnose early is definitely worth it. This process, although frightful, has made me much more aware of my risk and the steps I can take to be proactive about my health. Now the only thing I have to fear this October is running out of candy on Trick-Or-Treat night.
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Edited by Sydney Keener