Everything You Want to Know About Breast Cancer

How have you all been doing? Hopefully good. I had become Mr. India for some time, but I am back now. October is here, and we all know that this month is dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness; here is my bit in the form of this article. Breast cancer is one of the most commonly occurring cancers in women. The word ‘cancer’ in itself is very daunting and scary, but breast cancer becomes more sensitive because of the stigma and the vulnerability of emotions attached to it. We relate breasts with femininity; can you imagine yourself without your breasts? Loss of identity, image, sense of being are the excess baggage that often comes with this form of cancer. We all can very well understand, if not sense in actuality, what goes on in the mind of the victims.

Facts You Must Know About Breast Cancer - What It Is, What Triggers It, Symptoms and Self Examination

What Is It:

Facts You Must Know About Breast Cancer - What It Is, What Triggers It, Symptoms and Self Examination 4

This type of cancer occurs more often in urban areas, and generally in women above 40; it does occur in men, but it is relatively rare. Breast cancer occurs in the milk duct or milk nodules (where milk is formed). The tissue in this area starts multiplying out of control and forms a lump or a tumor, which may or may not lead to invasive (spreading) cancer.

What Triggers Breast Cancer:

There are a lot of factors that can lead to the occurrence of breast cancer like heredity, genetics, lifestyle, urbanization, weight, medical history, exposure to triggers and various others. Pinpointing a cause is still not possible in most of the cases though.

Facts You Must Know About Breast Cancer - What It Is, What Triggers It, Symptoms and Self Examination 2

1. Urbanisation
Breast cancer is more commonly found in the developed cities and states as compared to the rural or the underdeveloped ones. Lifestyle, polluted environment are mainly responsible here. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is very important for women living in such areas.

2. Unhealthy Lifestyle
Maintaining proper weight and fitness is also very important, especially if you have a sedentary lifestyle. Oversized or overweight breasts also tend to be at more risk. So, working out is really very important. Diet also matters, and homemade food always wins over take-aways or packaged ones as the latter have a lot of chemical preservatives and stabilizers.

3. Heredity
If somebody in your family has/had cancer, the chances for you increase too, but it’s not necessary that you’ll 100% get it. It depends upon your relation with the patient – whether she is your immediate family member or a distant one.

4. Environmental Factors
Sometimes, the environment you get daily exposed to also matters – like a person staying close to a toxic factory or working directly with chemicals will get more affected. At time, medications can react or some other form of cancer can spread. Too much or regular x-rays, scanning or radiation exposure are also considered a probable trigger now.

5. Age
This generally occurs in women above 40 years, and is more common in women with late or no pregnancy as breastfeeding reduces the chance of occurrence of this cancer.

What DOESN’T Trigger Breast Cancer:

Facts You Must Know About Breast Cancer - What It Is, What Triggers It, Symptoms and Self Examination 3

Signs and Symptoms:

There are a few symptoms by which you can detect at home; you just have to look for some symptoms. Women above 40 should religiously perform monthly self breast-examination tests. You can check by carefully examining your breasts and nipples, and also your armpits with your fingers.

Facts You Must Know About Breast Cancer - What It Is, What Triggers It, Symptoms and Self Examination

If any of the above symptoms is encountered, you should immediately see an expert. It might not be cancer, but precaution is always better than the cure. The treatment generally depends on the stage of the cancer and most commonly surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy are practiced.

With a little precaution and self-examination, breast cancer can be detected at a very early stage, and can be treated too. Many women are not aware about it, or shy away from this topic, and hence are never able to get proper treatment, in time.

Facts You Must Know About Breast Cancer - What It Is, What Triggers It, Symptoms and Self Examination 5

Women who have breast cancer need a lot of emotional support and stability. Friends and family have a big responsibility here – be patient with them! They are going through a huge emotional ordeal. Go for family counseling, if you must. The society should be more aware and sympathetic towards them. Make them realize that there is more to life, more to them, and that this is not the end. Sometimes emotional support and love cure more than medicines.

Hope you guys found this article helpful; do share your experience and views.

Love you, stay blessed, stay happy! 🙂

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9 thoughts on “Everything You Want to Know About Breast Cancer

  1. Reading this post made me so sad. I have never lost anyone to breast cancer thankfully and only know of my mother’s friend who fought it successfully. I guess it is the vulnerability that upset me – that fact that life is short and can change in anyway at any time! Thanks for this article – prevention is definitely better than cure and awareness always helps. 🙂

    1. I have a friend whose mother fought it successfully and one whose couldn’t, i have seen what happens 🙁 it is such a sad and helpless feeling. Hence awareness is so important which can help reduce the statistic drastically 🙂

  2. I am a breast cancer survivor myself n I cannot emphasise more on how much awareness can help with this type of cancer. Self examination can really help in diagnosing it at an early stage n it can b cured. Although it is more common in middle aged women but even younger women shud b careful. I was diagnosed last year at d age of 27.

    1. Thank you so much Priya for sharing it is with us, here, and congratulations 🙂 yes. self-examination is very important. I did not know it could happen at such a young age, thanks for letting us know 🙂

  3. I am sure this will be very helpful for a lot of women. It’s very important for all the women out there. I lost my maasi (my mom’s elder sister) due to breast cancer and so make sure that my mom keeps self examining every once in a while. Last year, we got her other tests done too, just to make sure. Thankfully, everything is! 🙂

    1. Yes all the women need to do self-examination regularly, the least we can do is atleast try to pursue our mother and aunts to have a thorough examination once 🙂 little precaution goes a long way 🙂

  4. I’m stage four breast cancer I’m on chemo which is devastating already had 10 sessions I’m weakened a lot but I won’t give up God’s great❤️❤️🙏🏼

  5. Guys i am a mother of 15 mnths old baby..i did’t breastfeed so much bcoj of less amount of milk production…wht sud i do now to check weither everything is fine or not..i hv heard that less breastfeed causes breast cancer..!!

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