Risk Factors
Researchers have identified factors that increase the risk of developing breast cancer during a lifetime. These risks are called risk factors. Risk factors do not cause breast cancer but can increase the risk of developing breast cancer. There are women who have several risk factors and never develop breast cancer and there are women who have few or no risk factors and develop breast cancer. Talk to your health care provider about your personal risk.
There are some risk factors that you can control and some that you cannot.
Factors that may increase your risk of developing breast cancer include:- Being a woman
- Increasing age (As women age, the likelihood of getting breast cancer increases, and one out of every eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.)
- Family history of breast cancer
- Having the inherited mutation of the BRCA1 or BRCA 2 breast cancer genes
- Having high breast density on a mammogram
- A personal history or breast or ovarian cancer
- Having a previous biopsy showing hyperplasia or carcinoma in situ
- Early start of menstruation (before age 12)
- Late menopause (after age 55)
- First pregnancy after 30 (or not having children)
- Being exposed to large amounts of radiation to the chest area
- High bone density
- Being overweight after menopause or gaining weight as an adult
- Having more than one alcoholic drink a day
- Using combined estrogen and progesterone hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
- Current or recent use of birth control pills