October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and a local doctor is advising women everywhere to get tested.
Dr. Breanna O’Neil, a general surgeon with Aurora spoke with Seehafer News, and revealed that breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the U.S. Breast Cancer 1 – “On average, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime,” she revealed. “It’s very common. We all probably have friends, neighbors, family members that have been diagnosed.”
Dr. O’Neil suggested talking with your primary care doctor about performing shelf checks on your breast tissue, but the most effective way to know for sure if you have it is by getting a mammogram.
During the screening, the doctor will take two pictures of each breast, but as Dr. O’Neil explains, it is a very safe procedure. “There’s very minimal radiation to doing a mammogram, so it’s very safe,” she explained. “And it’s not painful. It’s just minimally [uncomfortable].
“There’s a little bit of pressure but it’s not painful. It’s very quick, it’s easy, it’s fast, and you can get a lot of information just from those two pictures.”
While breast cancer does happen in men, it is far more common in women.
Some key risk factors that place people at a higher risk of contracting breast cancer include a family history of the disease and having the BRCA1 or 2 gene mutation.
Dr. O’Neil suggests living a healthy lifestyle to help mitigate your chance of becoming a part of that 1 in 8 women.
