Risk Factors for Disease You Can’t Change

Knowing your risk factors for diseases and other health conditions, including breast cancer, is the key to prevention! While many risk factors are modifiable, meaning you can change them, others unfortunately aren’t. Here are some other risk factors of breast cancer.

Age. The highest rates of breast cancer are diagnosed after age 70.
Family History. Those with a mother, sister, or daughter with breast cancer are twice as likely to be diagnosed.
Genes. Women with the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 have a 60% lifetime chance of getting the disease.
Benign Breast Disease. Hyperplasia, or extra cells, raises cancer risk most likely because the cells are more likely to become abnormal when they multiply.
Jewish Ethnicity. Jewish women, especially of European descent, are at higher risk due to a gene mutation that is linked with the disease.
Menstruation. Women who began to have periods early or who hit menopause late are at higher risk due to more menstrual periods. Estrogen and progesterone cycle during menstruation causing breast cells to multiply.
Giving Birth. Women who gave birth to less than two kids or who gave birth after age 30 are at higher risk. Pregnancies earlier in life may be protective by making the breast cells specialize to prepare for future reproduction and breastfeeding.