During October, “Breast Cancer Awareness Month”, health professionals are continuing to stress well-known facts about the disease.
Breast cancer is most treatable when caught as its early stages, thus the American Cancer society recommends that women over the age of 20 conduct regular monthly self-exams to check their breast for lumps or irregularities and recommends that women over forty get regular clinic checkups and mammograms every one to two years.
Women with a family history of the disease, and women who are overweight or inactive women should be especially vigilant in their preventative care and should discuss their risk factors with their doctors.
Women who got their periods at a young age and/or went through menopause later than most and women who have never had children are also at increased risk for breast cancer and should consider having a mammogram before age 40.
Breast cancer is the second most deadly cancer for women, following lung cancer.
