Health Tips

If you see or feel a change during your breast self-exam, it's good to know which changes are normal and which are worrisome. Learn what to expect and when to see your doctor. If a lump appears and turns out to be cancerous, there are many things your doctor will need to find out to determine your diagnosis. Know what tests will be done and how a diagnosis is made.

Breast Lumps
All breast lumps are not cancer. Learn about the four kinds of breast lumps and how they differ from one another.

Breast Lumps Overview
Do Your Breast Self-Exam (BSE)
When a Lump Isn't Cancer
Breast Cysts
Breast Fibroadenomas
Breast Hematomas
Breast Cancer Tumors
Skin Changes
Skin changes on your breast can signal something as ordinary as a rash or sunburn. However, they can also indicate underlying breast cancer. Learn more about Paget's Disease and Inflammatory Breast Cancer and how they are detected.

Paget's Disease of the Nipple
IBC - Inflammatory Breast Cancer
Benign Nipple Discharge
Imaging Studies
Breast imaging is done to diagnosis breast cancer as well as catch it early on. Imaging studies include: mammograms, ultrasounds, MRI, PET scans, CAT scans, and elastography.

Having a Mammogram
Mammogram Views for Routine and Diagnostic Screening
Mammogram Images, Descriptions and Details
Understanding Your Mammogram Report
Elastography for Breast Cancer Detection
Breast Ultrasound - Imaging for Breast Abnormalities
Breast Ultrasound Exam - What to Expect
Ductogram (Galactogram) For Nipple Discharge Diagnosis
Breast Biopsies
A biopsy is a procedure that takes a sample of tissue that is then sent for testing by a lab. It's important to get accurate results from a biopsy. If there is any disease, it's the biopsy result that will help to determine what your next course of action should be.

Breast Biopsy Overview
Ductal Lavage Screening for Pre-Cancerous and Cancerous Breast Cells
Sentinel Node Biopsy - What To Expect During Sentinel Node Biopsy
Breast Cancer Staging
What are the stages of breast cancer? How do the stages relate to the tumor size, lymph node status, and if the cancer has spread? Understand the stage of a breast cancer diagnosis and how it relates to your treatment options.

Stages of Breast Cancer
Staging and the TNM System - A Comparison Table
Tumor Grade - Rate of Tumor Growth
Hormone Status
Estrogen and progesterone biomarker tests results will appear on your pathology report. Understanding the test results is important because this information affects your treatment as well as your follow-up care, if you've been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Six Tips for A New Intimate Relationship
Here are six tips to start rebuilding your intimate relationship:
Make Time to Talk: Set a time and a place (not in bed) where you can talk openly, and share your concerns and desires. Listen carefully, without formulating a response before your loved one has finished speaking. Reflect what your partner has said, using your own words to make sure you understood what he meant. Set some goals to help you reconnect to each other.
Restrain Your Inner Geek: Email is not a good way to discuss your intimate issues. But if talking is difficult, try writing a letter, using nonjudgmental language to express your concerns and desires.
Stay Open-Minded: Withhold your judgement about each other’s performance and don’t make demands about how attempts at intimacy work out. You may prefer to make requests of your partner, so as not to pressure them into pre-treatment sexual perfection. Both of you have changed, so adjust your expectations and look for new ways to surprise each other.
Set The Stage: Agree on a room that will be just for the two of you. Enforce your time of privacy for intimacy. Turn off your phones, pagers, televisions, and hire a babysitter if necessary. Dim the lights, put on romantic music, or do whatever helps both of you feel attractive and confident.
Get Reacquainted: Start slowly -- kiss, hug, and cuddle. Express requests instead of making demands, using verbal or non-verbal communication. Try new ways to touch each other, remembering how you both have changed.
Sources:


Discuss Sex and Breast Cancer in the Forum

Index: Intimacy After Breast Cancer Treatment Looking for a New "Normal"
Rebuild Intimacy: Be Patient, Persistent, Creative, and Communicative
Intimacy After Breast Cancer Treatment Tips for You and Your Loved One
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Breast cancer begins in the breast tissue. It is characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells, which usually starts in the milk sacs or ducts. The tumour may be hard or soft and may sometimes be described as a thickening of the breast. Breast cancers are almost always painless.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, other than skin cancer. It rarely affects men. One woman in nine will develop breast cancer by age 85. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, after lung cancer. It is the leading cause of cancer death among women aged 40 to 55.

The National Cancer Institute of Canada estimates that in 2007, an estimated 22,300 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,300 will die of it.

What Causes Breast Cancer?
No one knows exactly what causes breast cancer, but we do know that certain risk factors - things that increase a person's chance of getting a disease - are linked to breast cancer. Risk factors change depending on the type of cancer. There are a number of risk factors, both controllable and uncontrollable, which may increase the chances of developing breast cancer. For instance, the risk factors associated with diet can be controlled, but risk factors such as a person's age or family history can't be changed.
While all women are at risk for breast cancer, the factors listed below are associated with an increased chance of developing the disease.


Major Risk Factors
Gender
Being female is the main risk factor for breast cancer.

Age
The chance of getting breast cancer increases as a woman gets older.

Genetics
Studies show that between five percent and 10 percent of breast cancers appear to be linked to mutations in certain genes (specifically the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes). If a woman has inherited a mutated gene from either parent, she is more likely to develop breast cancer. More than half of women with inherited mutations will develop breast cancer by the age of 70.

Strong family history
The risk is higher among women whose close blood relatives have the disease. Having a mother, sister or daughter with breast cancer almost doubles a woman's risk, particularly if the relative was diagnosed before age 50.

Previous breast cancer
Having had cancer in one breast increases the risk of having it in the other.

Earlier radiation treatment
Women who have had chest area radiation treatment have a significantly increased risk of breast cancer (e.g. mantle radiation for Hodgkin's lymphoma).

A biopsy showing atypical hyperplasia
A previous diagnosis of this condition indicates a moderately increased risk. See the description of hyperplasia for details.


Minor risk factors
Reproductive factors
The risk seems to be higher among women who have not had children and in women who had their first baby after the age of 30.

Menstrual history
Women who began having periods early (before 12 years of age) or who went through menopause after the age of 50 also have a small increased risk.

Obesity
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of post-menopausal breast cancer.

Alcohol consumption
At one drink a day, the risk is very small. Those who have two to five drinks daily have about 1.5 times the risk of women who don't drink.

History
A history of previous benign breast biopsies, other than atypical hyperplasia