Breast Cancer in Younger Women

Breast Cancer in Younger Women

Linda Rea

Axia College of University of Phoenix

Com 125

Cathy A. Lange

June 10, 2007,

As women go through life, there are some things that are taught, some things are common knowledge and others are on a need to know basis. Women experience remarkable events that are made very clear as they go through life, for example, childbirth, a lot of women have known they are going to experience childbirth since little girls. One thing that women do not get prepared for at a young age is breast cancer. When Michelle gave herself a breast examination, she discovered a lump. At the age of 21, Michelle didn’t think about breast cancer, after all mammograms are not performed until at least 40. After months of going around with the lump she went to a doctor’s office on a routine visit and pointed out the lump and was assured it most likely was not breast cancer. Although, as it turned out, it was indeed breast cancer. Insurance companies and doctor’s recommend that women 40 and over have a mammogram annually for early detection of breast cancer, leaving women 40 and under depending on self-examinations for early detection.

Early detection is one way for women to survive breast cancer. Mammography is a low-dose X-ray that gets performed on women, usually forty and over, annually from your primary care physician. With the help of a mammogram breast cancer can be detected up to two years before it becomes large enough to be felt by self-exams. In Breast Cancer Facts (2005), it stated that mammography is not early detection, nor, does it prevent breast cancer, but there is a greater chance of survival when a mammogram is performed early and the cancer is detected early. Unfortunately, if mammograms are not being performed before the age of forty, then the chances for early detection become further and further away from being reality.

There are early signs to be aware of for...