Breathe
By Rina Gitler
Pink month has arrived, pink day: October 19 to raise awareness of breast cancer. But what happens next? It should be "All Year is Pink", at least for the ALMA Foundation it is.
We have to be aware that women and also men (2% of cases) who get breast cancer can get sick 365 days a year. Breast cancer does not respect age, religion, socioeconomic status and much less political parties.
Here are some hard facts about the situation in Mexico so you can understand that it can happen to all of us. Today breast cancer is not a death sentence if it is diagnosed in time, the key: self-examination and mastography from the age of 40.
I also share with you "the breast bra" by Edmée Pardo with which we have already trained millions of girls and women throughout the Mexican Republic so that self-examination begins at an early age and becomes a routine, just like brushing your teeth.
What you need to know:
The main problem of this disease is the generalized delay in detection and care, which causes a cancer that could have been treated at an early stage to be treated at an advanced stage. This delay means that diagnoses are made at a late stage (stages III and IV), which results in nearly 8,000 deaths from breast cancer each year in Mexico.
ALMOST 22 WOMEN DIE EVERY DAY FROM BREAST CANCER IN OUR COUNTRY.
RELEVANT DATA
● Breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide and in Mexico.
● 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer in her lifetime.
● In the United States, the average age at which breast cancer occurs is 62 years, in Mexico, it is 52 years.
● In high-income countries, breast cancer is mostly detected in early stages (around 80%), in Mexico the opposite is true.
● The lower the level of marginalization of Mexican women, the more frequent it is for breast cancer to present in advanced stages.
● Breast cancer is the cancer that claims the most lives among women in Mexico. The mortality rate in women aged 20 years and older is 18 per 100,000 women, while in the group of women over 60 years of age, the registered rate is 48 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
The states with the highest number of deaths are: Colima, Tamaulipas, Sonora, Chihuahua and Mexico City.
● In Mexico there are about 30 thousand new cases of this disease per year.
● Despite the fact that men account for less between 1% and 2% of breast cancer cases, it tends to have higher mortality.
● Care for late-stage breast cancer costs 3 to 5 times more than for cancer found early.
● The mastography study for the timely detection of breast cancer is a free study in public health institutions.
● Around 56 million Mexicans achieved social security in 2016 by having Seguro Popular. Since its disappearance in 2019, there has been a significant decrease in the number of people with some type of social security.
Breast cancer has no single cause; a number of factors have been identified such as age, early onset of menstruation, late onset of menopause (after age 55); history of breast or ovarian cancer; obesity and overweight; smoking and alcohol intake; some hormone replacement therapies and certain oral contraceptives; as well as inherited genetic mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
What to do to reduce the risk of breast cancer?
Have a healthy lifestyle and check your breasts every month between the fifth and seventh day after the start of your menstrual period, and take these actions:
- Exercising
- Drinking water instead of sugary beverages
- No smoking
- Do not abuse alcohol
- Maintaining a healthy weight
To detect breast cancer in a timely manner, you should visit your doctor if you detect breast cancer in your breasts:
- Pellets
- Sinking
- "Orange peel".
- Nipple discharge
- Any abnormality in the architecture of the breast
80% of breast lumps are benign. If you find one, you should see your doctor for complementary studies such as ultrasound or mastography depending on your age.
Here you can see "Mom's bra" and don't forget to share it.
https://youtu.be/VBVbZs9ljwk?si=B2XOsp3ZGfkhpQqT
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The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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