Breast cancer doesn't respect gender!
Male
Female
Transwomen or transmen
Cisgender women or cisgender men.
Breast cancer strikes when it's time. In this case, women are more at risk of getting breast cancer than men. But the name of the breast cancer that actually happens to men is called lnvasive ductual carcinoma (IDC). And it gets even more interesting; do you know transwomen have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than a cisgender man? While transmen have a lesser risk of developing breast cancer compared to cisgender women, But note that even with this, they are all still at risk of having breast cancer at some point.
Key facts
Breast cancer caused 685 000 deaths globally in 2020.
Roughly half of all breast cancers occur in women, with no specific risk factors other than sex and age.
Breast cancer is inevitable, it happens in every country in the world.
Approximately 0.5–1% of breast cancers occur in men.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO). Reference
What is this breast cancer, one might ask?
We all know our breasts lie over pectoral muscles; they are located on the front of our chest and are known as mammary glands in medical terms, which are used to address mostly females because they tend to have enlarged breasts, which are used for breastfeeding compared to men who don't.
Breast cancer comes into view when abnormal breast cells grow out of control and form a dangerous tumor, and if not caught at sight or checked on time, the diagnosed patient risks suffering from the spread of cancer all across the body. From the lungs, brain, legs, and hands, it could paralyze half of the body. In some cases, the cancer has not yet spread all over the body, but there's a chance it could. The breast is amputated; that's why you see some women who survived such a disease left with a permanent scar on their chest. And we know how effective breastfeeding one's child is; it's one big blessing, so imagine when your breast gets amputated; for some, they can't handle such emotional distress which leads to insecurities and inferiority complex.
The earliest form of breast cancer (in situ) is not so life-threatening, but note that when it actually spreads across the body, the cell first spreads into the nearest breast tissue (invasion), which now creates the tumors that then cause lumps or thickening in some cases.
Signs and symptoms of breast cancer.
Note that not every breast lump is identified as breast cancer, but that doesn't stop a person from checking and examining their body, especially when one sees signs and symptoms linked to breast cancer.
They are;
• Thickness or swelling of a part of the breast without pain
• Redness, dimpling, irritation, and flaky skin in the nipples area
• Pain in the nipples and abnormal or bloody fluids from the nipples
Individuals at risk of breast cancer
Individuals over the age of 40 are at risk of getting breast cancer. Obesity counts too, as well as too much intake of harmful alcohol, a history of radiation exposure, the use of tobacco, and postmenopausal hormone therapy. And if you come from a family that has a history of breast cancer, then having this disease is at higher risk for that individual.
The issue with a family that has a breast cancer history is that almost all the women are affected at a certain age. Why? One might ask. Well, that's because these women inherited certain high-penetrance gene mutations, which increase the risk of breast cancer. Genes like BRCA1, BRCA2, and PALB
Treatment
° Treatment in such cases can only be administered when it's detected, according to the stage it has advanced into. At stages II and III, the disease has spread outside the breast lymph nodes, but at stage IV, it has spread across the body.
° Surgery such as a lumpectomy can be done on the patient; this is the process of removing the cancerous tissues. That's when it's detected early enough, but if not, then the whole breast is going. That's when mastectomy plays its role—the amputation of both breasts.
° Radiation therapy reduces the chance or recurrence of risk and surrounding tissues.
° Medication authorized by the doctor, which could be a medical oncologist. A surgical oncologist and a radiation oncologist should be the ones dealing with such cases. And those medications used to kill the cancer and prevent its spread include hormonal therapies, chemotherapy, or targeted biological therapies.
Prevention is better than cure.
^ If one of your family members has a history of breast cancer, start taking your medical checkups seriously.
^ Stay away from harmful alcoholic substances to live longer.
^ Going for a checkup at least once a year, women from 50 to 74 are at high risk of getting breast cancer. So from your 40s on, start taking your health seriously. Even without a family history of breast cancer, one can still fall victim to it.
^ Breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer, so make sure to breastfeed your kids. All those future mothers, do go with the trend that my breasts will sag when I breastfeed. It's better for it to sag than to place your life in the hands of death.
Personal contribution
So this October awareness, I think, is a very interesting topic to get people aware of the harm that comes with not taking care of their health or not getting the correct information. Ignorance is never bliss. To drop my personal opinion, I think hive members should get assigned such tasks to enlighten people on the usefulness of taking care of their health, especially in the terms of breast cancer, which was always seen as just a woman's issue. Now that it's proven that even men can have breast cancer, though at a lower rate, that too should not exclude transgenders and cisgenders.
So schools should be enlightened about such knowledge, especially those in college who are reckless about living, and then conferences or campaigns should be organized for more awareness to stop this harmful disease because we are losing more lives to breast cancer every year.
Well, I lost my aunt to breast cancer three years ago. She was one influential woman, a very loving and peaceful woman, but she didn't live to even hold her own child or even a grandchild. Also, a roommate of mine was saved from it; they detected the tumors earlier on both breasts, and today she's alive and very happy. Thank God for her life.