What is breast health? How is it protected?

Breast cancer is one of the two most common types of cancer in the world in recent years. Breast cancer is more common in women. Breast cancer is a health problem that can be treated with early diagnosis. For this reason, it is an important detail for everyone to be informed about breast health.

What is breast health?

For breast health, it is important for every woman to know her own breast first. This situation helps to notice any changes in the breast without wasting time. Breasts can also show differences over time.

In other words, symptoms such as breast tenderness and swelling during the menstrual period are very common. With the effect of hormones such as oxytocin, milk comes from the mother’s breast after the baby is born. Thus, it would be correct to state that the breast is a gland responsible for secreting milk. There are many studies by health authorities in the world to increase the awareness of women about breast health.

With the increase in awareness on this issue, the number of women who regularly have breast check-ups also increases significantly. However, in the 2020 data of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, it was seen that 685,000 women died from breast cancer unfortunately.

In other words, you should know that although there has been a significant increase in the number of women who have regular breast check-ups, breast cancer is still the most It is determined as cancer, which is very common among women and is the leading cause of death. In order to realize this, awareness was created as October 15th Breast Health Day.

  What do you know about breast cancer?

According to the declaration issued by the General Directorate of Public Health of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey, the risk of encountering breast cancer throughout a woman’s lifetime is 7.8%. Under normal conditions, cells show growth and reproduction characteristics.

However, no healthy cell continues to grow continuously and dies instantly. In some cases, cells begin to increase uncontrollably. Cancer is the uncontrolled and abnormal growth of cells. As with all cancer types, uncontrolled growth and proliferation of cells occurs in breast cancer.

Lobular cancer in the milk-secreting glands of the breast and ductal cancer in the milk-carrying ducts are the most common types of breast cancer. In particular, if breast cancer does not spread to the surrounding tissue and remains in the area where it is seen, it is called non-invasive breast cancer, and if it spreads to the surrounding tissue, it is also called invasive breast cancer.

Breast cancer risk factors?

Depending on different factors, some people have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than others. Some of these risk factors can be changed with changes in living habits, and some risk factors are stable.

  Breast cancer risk factors are;

Being a woman is one of the non-modifiable risk factors for breast cancer.
Breast cancer occurs especially in the advanced age group. but the risk is higher in younger women.
Being overweight is seen as one of the risk factors for breast cancer, as it is for other cancers.
Pregnancy, in which hormone levels such as estrogen and progesterone and the menstrual cycle change, play a protective role against breast cancer. In addition, not giving birth or having the first birth after the age of 30 is also among the risk factors for breast cancer.

In addition, having a history of breast cancer in first-degree relatives triggers the risk of cancer.

Estrogen and progesterone hormones are seen in the body of women with early menstruation and late menopause compared to others. This is among the risk factors for breast cancer.

As a result of scientific research, using birth control pills for more than ten years increases the risk of breast cancer. We see that harmful habits such as alcohol and smoking increase the risk of breast cancer. Having inherited mutated genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 are among breast cancer risk factors. Having previous breast cancer or receiving radiation therapy to the breast appears to increase the risk of developing breast cancer.
An important detail is that there may be benign cellular changes in the breasts of women. Since these changes can turn into cancer in the future, it is necessary to visit a doctor at regular intervals.

Breast cancer symptoms

It is important to perform breast self-examination in early diagnosis of breast cancer. A palpable mass in the breast, which is the first to appear in breast cancer symptoms, is the most common breast cancer sign. This mass is usually painless. In some cancer cases, the mass is seen in the armpit, not in the breast.

Another symptom of breast cancer is a difference in the appearance of the breast, such as swelling of the breast skin, thickening, orange peel appearance or nipple retraction.

Changes in the appearance and size of the breast are also symptoms of breast cancer.In some cases of breast cancer, there may be discharge from the nipple. However, most of the time, discharge from the nipple occurs in the advanced stages of cancer.