HealthInfo Canterbury
Reducing your risk of breast cancer
Over a lifetime one in nine women will develop breast cancer. For many, there's no clear reason why they have developed it.
You may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer if you have:
- a strong family history of breast cancer
- inherited a breast cancer gene, for example, the BRCA gene
- had radiation therapy to your chest before the age of 30
- previously had breast cancer or pre-cancerous conditions.
If you're concerned that you have some of the risk factors listed above, talk to your general practice team about whether you qualify for a genetic assessment or more frequent breast cancer screening.
Other risk factors include:
- being a woman and aged over 50
- being Māori. Māori women have a 35% higher incidence than non-Māori
Minor risk factors are:
- having your first period before the age of 12
- going through menopause at a late age (after 55)
- drinking alcohol
- smoking
- being overweight, especially after menopause
- taking the hormone estrogen.
Reducing your risk
There are things you can do to reduce your risk of developing breast cancer:
- Stop drinking alcohol or cut back on the amount you drink.
- If you're overweight, lose weight. If you're within a healthy weight range, maintain your weight through healthy eating and keeping active.
- Do regular physical activity. Compared to women who are inactive, those who exercise for three to four hours a week can reduce their risk by 20 to 30%. Regular physical activity also decreases the risk of cancer coming back in those who have already been treated for breast cancer.
- Reduce your lifetime exposure to estrogen. If you use menopause hormone therapy (MHT), use it for as short a time as possible. Hormonal contraceptives including the pill, intrauterine devices and injectables increase the risk of breast cancer. Although the increase in risk is small, the risk increases the longer you use them.
- Get good sleep. Disrupted sleep patterns, such as that experienced by shift workers and flight attendants can increase the risk of breast cancer.
- Breastfeed. If you breastfeed continuously for at least a year, you can reduce your risk of breast cancer
- Make sure you enrol in the breast screening programme once you turn 45. If you're over 45 and have not enrolled yet, see your general practice team to arrange this. You can also enrol yourself.
On the next page: Breast screening
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed September 2022.
Sources
See also:
Review key: HIBCA-57360
