Can Breast Cancer Really Be Prevented?

Breast cancer can be caused by many things, such as heredity and genetic factors that give a person a predisposition for it. Though more common in women, it is still present in men and can be something that affects both people certainly. There is no definitive way to prevent breast cancer, as it is a disease that will occur, but there are ways to avoid its fatal effects and to avoid letting it get out of hand.

The best prevention is precaution, and that means having biannual exams with a doctor to make sure that everything is running smoothly. Specifically, biannual mammograms should be sought, once a woman is in her twenties. A doctor will take a biopsy and check to see if there are any abnormalities in the breast. Sometimes there can be something strange, like a lump or some other anomaly, but a biopsy shows that it is benign. Most times, the lumps that are found are benign but occasionally they can be malignant and indications of the cancer. The only way to catch it early is to continuously perform mammograms and tests, such as self breast exams, where you feel across your breasts to check for lumps.

In fact, sometimes you might have stage one of the cancer and no symptoms will present themselves at all. In these cases, just making it part of your daily routine to have a breast exam performed is what is necessary and essential to ensuring your good health and preventing the cancer from getting to a more dangerous stage. The more progressed it gets, the more aggressive the treatment needs to be and the greater your chance of a fatality. But, catching it early can result in a beating the disease before it gains any momentum to do any real damage.

Some symptoms that you might feel are tenderness of your breasts, strange lumps and formations that you did not feel before, and painful, itchy or dry skin around the nipples. Performing self exams daily, maybe while you are in the shower or before going to bed, will help you know when anything abnormal forms. And if you are pregnant or nursing, you might easily mistake lumps for milk ducts, as that is common during pregnancy. Even if that is what it is, it is important to still get checked, because missing it in the early stage will cause you grief later when you find that it has advanced and what you thought was nothing to worry about has turned into a dangerous and potentially life threatening cancer.

Both men and women need to have tests done, especially women, as breast cancer is becoming far more common in women all over the world than in men. Also, it is important to see your doctor if you feel any of the symptoms or if you have a history of breast cancer in your family. Even if you do not have a history and do not feel any symptoms it cannot hurt to have check ups where you have the mammograms performed so that you can be sure you are on the right track. And as women age, their chance of getting it increases, so make sure that you increase the number of doctor appointments you make as your age increases.