You must keep in mind, though, that a risk factor does not always have as a result you getting the disease. It only means that you should pay more attention so that in the unfortunate case that you will develop breast cacer, you will know what to do. Early detection will most probably save your life. Also, even if a woman with a high risk of breast cancer due to many risk factors will develop this disease, it is still not entirely safe to assume that all these factors have contributed to her getting breast cancer.
First of all, you most know that there are many risk factors, some you might possibly change, but there are some you cannot change. Among the factors you can not change we must mention gender, age or race. Others are probably not linked in any way to your health condition, but they depend on the environment, lifestyle or things like this. Gender is probably the factor that influences most the risk of breast cancer. By the simple fact that you are a woman, the chances that you will develop breast cancer are significantly higher.
It is a fact that breast cancer can also occur in men but the number of female breast cancer patients is way higher, approximately one hundred times more women are sufferers of breast cancer. Obviously women have more breast cells than men do, but still the cause for the fact that they develop more often this disease is their constant exposure to the growth-promoting effects of the female hormones. Another factor besides gender is also your age. The risk of you developing breast cancer is higher as you get older. Statistics tell us that most women affected by this type of cancer are 45 or older, and regarding men, the disease usually occurs to men older than 55 or 60.
Another factor would be the genetic one. Although less than 15 percent of the breast cancer cases are proven to be a direct cause of having a history of breast cancer in their family, it still must be taken into consideration and remembered that cancer can be a hereditary disease and inhearited from your mother or actually any parent. Also try paying a visit to a doctor if your sister or a more distant blood relative is affected by cancer and you present one or more symptoms.
You must also be informed that usually white Caucasian women are more affected by breast cancer, while African-American women develop more aggressive types of tumor, but more rarely. The risk of developing breast cancer can be also related to your menstrual periods and having children at a certain age or not having any children can also be a factor risk. There are many studies that make a connection between breast cancer and many aspects of our everyday life, but very rarely there is a real link between those aspects and our health condition.Remember that even if you present one or a few risk factors, it is not in any way certain that you will develop the disease.