I’m even wearing pigtails to complete the cheeresqueness.
Full report tomorrow, meanwhile feel free to stroll down mammary lane (sorry, had to) and visits in 2005 and 2006 …then go check yourself and/or a loved one.
~ One in eight women or 12.6% of all women will get breast cancer in her lifetime.
~ Breast cancer risk increases with age and every woman is at risk.
~ Every 13 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer.
~ Seventy-seven percent of women with breast cancer are over 50.
~ In 2000, it was estimated that approximately 1400 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in men and 400 of those men will die.
~ More than 1.7 million women who have had breast cancer are still alive in the United States.
~ Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women between the ages of 15 and 54, and the second cause of cancer death in women 55 to 74.
~ Risks for breast cancer include a family history, atypical hyperplasia, delaying pregnancy until after age 30 or never becoming pregnant, early menstruation (before age 12), late menopause (after age 55), current use or use in the last ten years of oral contraceptives, and daily consumption of alcohol.
~ Early detection of breast cancer, through monthly breast self-exam and particularly yearly mammography after age 40, offers the best chance for survival.
~ Ninety-six percent of women who find and treat breast cancer early will be cancer-free after five years.
~ Over eighty percent of breast lumps are not cancerous, but benign such as fibrocystic breast disease.
10 May 07
2:07 pm
Those facts are pretty scary huh? I just saw this pretty amazing documentary about women around the world and the issues they deal with. Cancer in women is a serious problem not only in the US but in developing countries as well where their healthcare is very limited.
Check out the site for the film http://www.flyingconfessions.com
Its being released theatrically in July.
10 May 07
2:25 pm
Great link, thanks! I’ll be on the lookout for it. The more we talk and the more we share (financially and emotionally) the closer we get to a cure…not just for The Big C but for all that plagues us.
Pardon me, I need to run outside and hug a tree real quick…
10 May 07
4:09 pm
Is it really necessary for “news” programs to show someone getting a mammogram whenever they do a report on breast cancer? Typically it’s a shot from behind or the side with the woman in a non flattering gown and a technician doing some sort of manipulation (either on a machine or the woman) with their hands. Seems more degrading(?) than informative. I mean they don’t show prostate exams do they? But hey, if it’ll encourage women to get proper treatment I’m all for it.
10 May 07
6:07 pm
sigh
i’ve been avoiding this for, oh, seven years now. mom had it. mother-in-law is in chemo now.
avoidance must end
damn you and, of course, thank you.
xo
m
11 May 07
12:06 pm
@ vc: it’s interesting b/c the experience isn’t as clinical and horrible as it looks. The rooms are usually dimly lit and warm, the technicians are kind (though they do lift you into the machine and squish you) and it’s over in a flash. As for the prostate, Katie Couric used to have a colonoscopy on air every year since her husband died of colon cancer…it’s not a prostate but it maybe counts?
@ mega: good girl. I’m here for whatever support you want or need.