Breast density is often inherited, but other factors can influence it. Factors associated with higher breast density include using menopausal hormone therapy and having a low body mass index. Factors associated with lower breast density include increasing age and having children.
Doctors know dense breast tissue makes breast cancer screening more difficult and it increases the risk of breast cancer. Review your breast cancer risk factors with your doctor and consider your options for additional breast cancer screening tests.
What Is Breast Density? Breast density reflects the amount of fibrous and glandular tissue in a woman's breasts compared with the amount of fatty tissue in the breasts, as seen on a mammogram.
Can I change my breast density? No — breast density is determined by genetics, age, menopause status and family history. Weight gain and certain medications can also influence your breast density.
In some cases, dense breast tissue can be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Studies have shown that four in 10 cases of breast cancer in younger women could be attributed to high breast density.
Women who follow a regular Western diet of high-fat dairy products, red meat consumption, and high-sugar foods are at greater risk of maintaining dense breast tissue and are more inclined to develop breast cancer.
An increase in breast density often is seen in women taking exogenous hormones such as hormonal replacement therapy. Having conditions that change the fluid status of the body, such as heart failure or renal failure, can also change the person's breast density.
Some women have more dense breast tissue than others. For most women, breasts become less dense with age.
"Dense breasts are more common in younger women, and most women experience a sharp decline [in breast density] during menopause that continues in the postmenopausal period," she added. "However, postmenopausal estrogen and progestin [hormone] therapy can reverse the decline of breast density with age."
However, women with dense breasts can consider following a dense breast tissue diet, which can help decrease breast density and have healthy breasts. We recommend: Eliminating caffeine. Decreasing or eliminating red meat.
Breast density is not a static trait. Breast density changes with age, for example. On average, older women have lower density breast tissue than do younger women. The greatest change in density occurs during the menopause years.
In general, smaller-breasted women tend to have dense breasts and larger-breasted women tend to have more fat in their breasts.
If you're one of the many women with dense breast tissue, you'll need to get extra familiar with your breasts in monthly self-exams. That's because dense tissue can feel fibrous or lumpy compared with fattier tissue, and detecting an abnormal spot can be trickier.
If you have dense breast tissue and are at an increased risk of breast cancer due to a genetic mutation or other factors, your care team may recommend alternating MRIs and mammograms every six months. “That way we'll be sure to catch any abnormalities as early as possible,” Cohen says.
No. Breast pain or tenderness is not related to breast density. Breast pain that comes and goes is often because of changes in hormones due to your period and is most common on the sides of your breasts (near your arms and underarms).
Women diagnosed with dense breasts should continue to get regular screening mammograms. But there are additional screening tests that can help doctors detect tumors that may not be identified by conventional mammography or DBT: Breast ultrasound (whole-breast ultrasound).
Our data suggest that increases in vitamin D and calcium intakes are associated with decreases in mammographic breast densities, which have been associated with decreased risk of breast cancer in other studies.
Roughly half of women ages 40 to 74 have dense breasts. The breasts of aging women become less dense over time, although nearly a third of all women age 65 and older still have dense breasts, Braithwaite said. The USPSTF recommends a mammogram every two years for women in the 50 to 74 age group.
One out of every two women age 40 and over has dense breast tissue and all women experience changes in their breast density as they get older. What is breast density? “Breast density describes how much fatty tissue versus fibroglandular (glandular and connective) tissue is in a woman's breasts,” says Dr.
If you have dense breast tissue, you're at higher risk for breast cancer and your breasts will be harder to screen via mammograms. Here's what you need to know to navigate risk and screening. Since the advent of the pink ribbon, women have been blasted with the message that mammograms save lives.
Our study observed an approximate 8% increase in the relative amount of mammographic density with high alcohol intake, which is within range of other breast cancer risk factors known to modify mammographic density (range 2-10%) [1,2].
Moreover, women with fatty breasts are at low risk of breast cancer, regardless of age, menopausal status, family history of breast cancer, history of prior breast biopsy, and postmenopausal hormone therapy use [3, 11]. Lastly, women with low breast density are at reduced risk of advanced-stage disease [11].
Studies suggest that vitamin D may reduce breast cancer risk and dietary vitamin D intake has been associated with reduced breast density.
Fat content in what you eat and exercise do not directly change breast density. But if you lose or gain a lot of weight, your breasts can look more or less dense on your mammogram – though the amount of dense tissue will stay the same.
“Breast density has nothing to do with how your breasts look or feel,” Dr. Musser explains. “It does not affect the fit of bras and swimming suits or determine the degree of sagging a woman experiences with age. It is an assessment based on the mammographic appearance of your breast tissue.”