Women breastcancer

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Despite their general fear, many women across Europe and America remain oblivious of different methods of cancer prevention and early detection.
Especially for breast cancer, the most common female cancer, early detection can save a woman from losing her breasts and, more importantly, her life. Regularly checking your own breasts for irregular changes and lumps is the first step in protecting yourself from breast cancer.

By examining our own breasts regularly, we can get to know how they look and feel normally and can more readily detect any signs or symptoms if a change occurs, such as development of a lump or swelling, skin irritation, nipple pain or colour changes or a discharge other than breast milk. Reporting any breast changes to a doctor or nurse as soon as you spot them could mean the difference between life and death.

Unfortunately, almost two-thirds of the respondents don’t check or rarely check their breasts themselves. French women are the least aware with a staggering 26 per cent never doing the self-check and 39 per cent only sometimes; this goes for women from Italy, Poland and Germany as well.

46 per cent of British women said check their breasts regularly and while this is a better result than the rest of Europe it still leaves a staggering 54% who are not taking this simple step which could save their life.

Regular mammograms are equally low on the agenda. This however also depends
on the different health schemes across Europe and the Americas. Experts recommend regular mammograms should be carried out in women from the age of 40. Women at risk (greater than 20% lifetime risk) should get a mammogram every year. If you want a mammogram or are unsure how to check your own breasts, talk to your GP or gynecologist as soon as possible.