How to lower your breast cancer risk

You cannot control some risk factors for breast cancer. For example, you can't change your sex, age, or family history. But there are lifestyle changes that can help reduce your risk of breast cancer, as well as other cancers. These steps will improve overall health, which may help you if you do happen to develop cancer. Here's what you can do.

• Have regular mammograms. If you are over 40, have an annual mammogram and a breast exam by a doctor or other clinician, and consider doing a monthly breast self-exam.
• Have a breast exam. If you are 20–39 years old, have a clinical breast exam every three years, and consider doing a monthly breast self-exam.
• Avoid long-term use of post-menopausal hormones. While short-term use of estrogen does not appear to increase risk, women who use combined hormonal therapy for five years or more are more likely to develop breast cancer.
• Control your weight. Avoid gaining weight, particularly after menopause.
• Exercise daily. Regular exercise and higher levels of physical activity may reduce your breast cancer risk by as much as 30 percent.
• Limit alcohol. If you drink alcohol daily, talk with your doctor about whether reducing consumption would be prudent.
• Don't smoke.
• Determine your risk. If you are at higher than average risk for breast cancer because of a family history or other risk factors, talk with your doctor if there are other preventive measures you should take.

Women's Health Watch
Harvard Women's Health Watch puts you in closer touch with everything that's happening right now in the new age of women's health and medicine: new prevention strategies, diagnostic techniques, medications, and treatments. From heart disease to breast cancer, from hormone therapy to exercise, Harvard Women's Health Watch focuses on health from a woman's perspective.

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