A risk factor, in any sense, is something that increases the chance of something else happening. In the case of breast cancer, a risk factor would be something that increases the risk of getting the disease. But please don’t get me wrong, having one or more of them doesn’t mean you’ll get cancer. While it’s true that you can’t change certain risk factors, such as aging and family history, there are some that you can and should control.

lifestyle factors

Lifestyle risk factors involve personal behaviors and are therefore under your control. How often do you eat fast food? How often do you drink alcoholic beverages? Do you exercise more than once or twice a week? The answers to these and many other questions may have a lot to do with your risk of breast cancer.

These are the most common risk factors:

Alcohol – There is a clear link between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of developing breast cancer. The risk increases the more you drink. Women who have one drink a day have a small increased risk, but those who have two to five drinks a day are one and a half times more likely to develop breast cancer than women who don’t drink. Excessive alcohol consumption also increases the risk of other types of cancer.

excess body weight – Being overweight or obese after menopause increases a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer. After menopause, most of a woman’s estrogen comes from fat tissue (the ovaries stop making estrogen after menopause). More fatty tissue after menopause means more fatty tissue, which means more estrogen, which increases risk.

working out – According to research-based evidence, physical activity in the form of exercise reduces the risk of breast cancer. Although different studies have different recommendations for the amount of exercise, the American Cancer Society recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity throughout each week.

The pregnancy – Interestingly, women who have not had children or who had their first child after age 30 have a slightly higher risk than those who became pregnant and had children at younger ages.

Natality control – Although research is still being done in this area, any contraceptive method associated with hormones, such as oral contraceptives and birth control injections, is considered to increase a woman’s risk of developing cancer.

Postmenopausal hormone therapy – Estrogen hormone therapy (often combined with progesterone) can be used to help relieve menopausal symptoms and prevent osteoporosis; however, these therapies are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Unavoidable risk factors

Unfortunately, there are risk factors for breast cancer that nothing can be done about. First, being a woman. Breast cancer is much more likely to develop in women than in men, so if you are a woman, there is already a level of risk. But remember, just having one or more risk factors does not guarantee that you will get cancer.

Age is another unavoidable risk factor. The older you get, the more your risk increases. This is how one goes. However, it is important to note that age increases the risk of various health problems and diseases.

Mutations in particular genes, particularly BRCA1 and BRCA2, can also increase a person’s risk. It is believed that about 5 to 10 percent of breast cancer cases are hereditary, resulting from certain genetic defects.

Additional risk factors include breast tissue density (women with dense breasts potentially have twice the risk of those with average breast density) and race and ethnicity (some races and ethnicities have a higher incidence of breast cancer than others).