Risk factors and causes of breast cancer

There several factors that can increase chances of one getting breast  cancer

They include:

  1. Age and gender.

Advanced age an being female increases the chances of getting breast cancer.

2. History of breast cancer in the family and inherited genes 

Having a mother,sister or a daughter with breast cancer increases the risk of getting breast cancer.

Having more close relatives  with breast cancer  or one who got cancer under the age of 50 increases the risk as well.

Sometimes one can inherit genes that are faulty  and that increases the risk of getting breast cancer.Two types of the faulty gene include BRCA1 and BRACA2 genes.However having these genes does not mean one will always get the cancer.

3. Not having children or having them later in life

Not having children or having them later in life for example after 35 years of age increases the risk of getting breast cancer.

Also having early onset of menses and late menopause increases the risk as well.

This is because the above factors causes long exposure to sex hormones in the body and this has been linked to development of breast cancer.

4. Lifestyle factors

Consumption of low fibre diet and high fat diet,obesity,smoking and alcohol intake increases the risk of breast cancer.

Symptoms of breast cancer

  • Many breast cancer symptoms are invisible and not noticeable without a professional screening, but some symptoms can be caught early by being proactive about your breast health. 
  • This involves a regular self breast examination to know what feels normal, and thus it becomes easy to pick up any changes or lumps early.