When Should I Get a Breast Cancer Examination?
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Im 19, mу mum died οf breast cancer, I һаνе qυіеt a family history οf cancer. I want tο know wһеח ѕһουƖԁ I ɡеt a mammogram? аrе tһеrе аחу οtһеr tests I саח detect cancer?
Breast Cancer - A Complete Overview
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2 Comments on “When Should I Get a Breast Cancer Examination?”
You should consult with your primary care physician about when you both think is the best time to start receiving mammograms. Mammograms are typicaly started at age 40 and done once every year. Self breast examinations can also be helpful in early detection.
I’m sorry to hear about your mother.
It is common for the daughter of a woman who has had breast cancer to be offered her first routine mammogram when she is ten years younger than her mother was at diagnosis.
This is usual whether or not her mother’s breast cancer was due to one of the rare inherited faulty BRCA genes known to be responsible for hereditary breast cancer.
Only 5 – 10% of breast cancer cases are hereditary and, like other cancers, breast cancer diagnosed after the age of 50 is even less likely to be hereditary; if your mother was the only member of your family to have had breast cancer, it’s unlikely to be hereditary.
There is a test that can establish whether or not someone carries one of the BRCA genes; but it is usually only done when there is a strong family history of breast cancer that suggests heredity, or where cases of breast cancer within the family have been found to be due to one of the BRCA genes.
At 19, whether or not your mother’s cancer was hereditary, your chances of breast cancer are almost non-existent. It’s almost unheard of in under 25s and fewer than 0.1% of all those diagnosed are under 30 and only 5% are under 50.
You say you have a family history of cancer, but you don’t say what types or how old the family members were at diagnosis. Family members having cancers other than breast cancer does not increase your breast cancer risk, and very likely do not increase your risk of other cancers either.
A sign that cancer MAY be hereditary within a family is when several members of the same side of the family have had the SAME type of cancer, especially if some developed it at a younger than usual age.