Natural Beginning Birth Center Blog

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females in the United States and the second most common cause of cancer death in women. Approximately one-half of newly diagnosed breast cancers can be explained by known risk factors, such as age at menarche, first live birth, menopause, and proliferative breast disease. An additional 10% are associated with a positive family history. Risk factors for breast cancer may be modified by demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors.  So, what increases our risk? What can we change? What do have no control over?  Age:  the risk of breast cancer increases with older age.  In recent surveillance risk stratifies as such: Birth to age 39 - 1 in 203 women;  Age 40 to 59 - 1 in 27 women;  Age 60 to 69 - 1 in 28 women; Age 70 and older - 1 in 15 women;  Birth to death - 1 in 8 women. Female gender :  Breast cancer occurs 100 times more frequently in women than in men.  In the United ...

National Women’s Health Week kicked off on Mother’s Day and yesterday was National Women’s Checkup Day. These nationwide awareness campaigns happen every year in the month of May to encourage women to schedule their annual well-women visits.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests women set aside time to discuss their health habits, family history and goals for optimal health at their annual well-women visit. During these visits, women receive preventative care and necessary screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, cervical cancer and many other conditions.  People often confuse the well-woman exam as just a pap smear—but it is truly our opportunity as women to assess our whole health status. Well-women visits help identify diseases such as cervical precancers early, when they are easier to treat. They allow providers to teach preventative strategies that empower women to reduce their risk for illness. And now, under the Affordable Care Act, most...

Breast self exam has long been included with the standard instructions during the annual well woman exam. However, there are very few randomized trials examining the effectiveness of this routine.  One large study in China compared breast self exam (BSE) to a control group who did not do them. The BSE group was instructed in proper technique and received a review of those instructions at one and 5 years. They also had supervised exams every 6 months for 5 years.  The women were followed for 10 years and they found no difference between the two groups in breast cancer deaths but more benign breast lesions were diagnosed in the self-examination group.  Other studies also failed to find a benefit of regular BSE in the rate of breast cancer diagnosis, death, or tumor size. These studies also found an increased rate of biopsy for benign breast disease in the BSE groups. The findings of two other case controlled studies suggest that proper BSE technique is important. Despite t...