Be Breast Aware

To be breast aware means becoming familiar with how your breasts look and feel. You should understand how your breasts may change at different times during the month and also as you get older.

For some women, breasts become enlarged, tender and lumpy just before a period, and then return to normal once the period is over, others may have swollen breasts throughout their cycle. Age, pregnancy, Hormone Replacement Therapy and the menopause can all affect the size and feel of your breasts. The important thing is to recognise which changes are usual and which are not. Make sure you know what is normal for you.

What you should do

You can help yourself by checking your breasts at least once a month. Why not try doing it in the shower, using your hands to wash yourself rather than a sponge or flannel? Just a few minutes every now and then could help save your life. Look for these changes, and remember, if you are in any doubt visit your doctor.

Look!

Look at yourself in the mirror, look for changes that are unusual. For example:

• Any change in the shape or size of the breast or nipple
• Any change in the position or colouring of the nipple, including inversion
• Any dimpling, denting, scaling or discolouration of the skin

Feel!

Feel your breasts, feel for anything that is not normally there. For example:
A lump or swelling in your breast, that feels different from the rest of your breast tissue, a lump or swelling in the armpit, arm or around your collarbone

Be breast aware!

Recognise any other changes. For example:

• Discharge from one or both nipples
• A pain in the breast, armpit or arm that is new for you

Report any changes that you find to your doctor without delay, and if you are aged 50 or over, attend routine breast screening.

Reducing the Risk

It’s not possible to prevent breast cancer yet, but it is possible to reduce your risk of dying from the disease. Here’s how:

At present the best way to influence your chance of surviving breast cancer is to detect the cancer early. Earlier diagnosis and better treatment have led to a 22 per cent fall in breast cancer death rates in the last 10 years.

Be Breast Aware - The best way to influence your chance of surviving breast cancer is to detect it early, so be breast aware and know what is normal for you, then you can act if you notice something wrong.

Attend routine breast screening - All women aged between 50 and 65* are invited to attend for a mammogram. Women over 65 years of age can, and should, ask to be screened.

Eat a healthy well-balanced diet - Experts believe diet is likely to play a part in the development of breast cancer, but its role is not yet understood. However, eating a healthy, well-balanced, low-fat, high fibre diet, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, is beneficial to overall health and so is recommended.

Take regular exercise - Regular exercise contributes towards a healthier lifestyle and helps maintain a healthy body weight. Post-menopausal women who are overweight have an increased risk of breast cancer. Obese women have a risk about 50 per cent higher than women of a normal weight.

Obesity - Postmenopausal women who are overweight have an increased risk of breast cancer. Obese women have a risk about 50 per cent higher than women of a normal weight. However obesity does not appear to increase the risk of breast cancer in women before the menopause.

Be sensible with alcohol -There is increasing evidence to suggest that drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing breast cancer. The Department of Health advises that per day women should drink no more than two to three units1 of alcohol and men should not drink more than three to four.

1A pint of ordinary strength lager, bitter or cider is 2 units, a pint of strong lager is 3 units, a 175ml glass of wine is around 2 units, a pub measure of spirits is 1 unit and an alcopop is around 1.5 units.

Information Courtesy of Breast Cancer Campaign
This page was last updated on 19th February 2005

Information Courtesy of Breast Cancer Campaign

The aim of Breast Cancer Campaign is to research the cure. We aim to do this by funding research, which looks at:

• Improving diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
• Better understanding how it develops
  and ultimately either curing the disease or preventing it.

Breast Cancer Campaign will fund this research at any centre of excellence anywhere within the United Kingdom providing it meets our quality criteria and is favourably peer reviewed.

We have a particular interest in research which progresses promising laboratory results into the clinic and develops the research of talented young investigators.