Information about breast cancer

Stay alert for alarm signs

"It's not in our family" is one of the biggest misconceptions about breast cancer. In reality, more than half of women with breast cancer are the only ones affected in the family. That's why we all need to be alert for the warning signs. Every year, Pink Ribbon highlights them anew, with the support of the National Lottery.

Some women are convinced that they are at high risk for breast cancer because their mother or aunt was affected by the disease. This is incorrect. If a family member has breast cancer, your deductible is somewhat higher, but not to an alarming degree. Unless there is hereditary breast cancer, which is usually not the case. Conversely, there are women who think they themselves are not at risk for breast cancer because it does not run in their family. They are already completely wrong, because in seven out of 10 women with breast cancer, the disease does not run in the family.

Therefore, we should all be alert for possible alarm signs that may indicate breast cancer. In more than half the cases, but not always, that is the discovery of a hard lump in a breast. The signal whose potential severity we all know well. Such a suspicious lump is by no means the only alarm signal. A budding breast cancer can also manifest itself in other ways, with a lump on the breast or under the armpit, for example.

Other alarm signs include a pit in your breast, a distorted breast, a retracted nipple, fluid loss from the nipple, uneven, scaly skin or redness of part of the breast. In all, there are nine warning signs that may indicate breast cancer. Year after year, the non-profit organization Pink Ribbon, thanks to all National Lottery players, highlights these alarm signs.

Read more about the 9 alarm signals of breast cancer here

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Unreliable breast examination

In Flanders and the Netherlands, medical thermography centers are springing up like mushrooms. They also offer breast exams as a safe method of examining your breast health.
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The look and feel of your breasts

Six out of 10 breast cancers are discovered by women themselves and not through screening mammography. We cannot be aware enough of this.
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Trans women also at greater risk of breast cancer

On average, women are 100 times more at risk of breast cancer than men. Trans women, born male, are also at higher risk of breast cancer after their transition because they have to administer female hormones to themselves for life. How high is that risk and is screening by mammography useful for them as well?
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