A Message from Lara
Each day, we hear stories about women facing breast cancer—from customers, care providers, and our own family and friends. Being in the business of making post-surgical bras, it’s a big part of our conversations. But we’re always talking about other people. Our mom, as our inspiration. Our feedback from patients and partners. Our network telling us about someone they know who’s been diagnosed.
It's at my annual mammogram when I’m actually thinking about myself and my own risks. While my sister and I don’t carry the BRCA gene, we do run a risk with a number of family members who have had cancer. With this risk factor, I had been on a path of a yearly mammogram and 3D ultrasound. However, when my insurance changed, I was set back on a path of an annual mammogram alone. My doctor referred me to see a specialist to assess my risk and then take those recommendations to my insurance company.
It turns out that our family risk is enough to warrant the most aggressive testing, the specialist explained, which equates to a mammogram and ultrasound every six months and an MRI on the opposite six months. A friend in cancer research confirmed that this is truly the best way to go about it. It was explained to me that, with an MRI, there are risks of false positives, but more often they can find the smallest incidence of cancer, which can be treated to prevent the growth or the spread of cancer. The breast MRI will also be helpful to me, as I have dense breast tissue.
I had a lot of questions for the specialist, a lot of concepts that I’d heard over the years, so I took this time to ask. And she in turn asked me about some of my behaviors that could reduce or increase the risk. Here are my main takeaways:
Having Children Younger
I started my family at an older age, and although this is my path, I had often thought about the idea that women who have children younger lessen their breast cancer risk. My specialist explained that yes, this is the case, but typically for women 25 and under. She said after that age, it really didn’t matter if I was in my 30s or 40s when I started. (I have heard breastfeeding can help too, but we didn’t address that factor.)
Exercising Regularly
Having been a lifelong runner, I am someone who enjoys exercise. I know it’s not everyone’s favorite thing, but it turns out it really does impact our cancer risk. Being busy with young kids, I started seeing my workouts as a luxury (again, I know not everyone feels this way!), but I stopped factoring time in my schedule. However, I was told that 150 minutes a week can reduce your breast cancer risk. That can even be a rapid walk. And for the real go-getters, 300 or more minutes boosts you even more. I added it back to my schedule knowing that it’s a positive thing to do.
Drinking Minimally
Again, with young kids, drinking has become less frequent in my life. Early mornings and active days have made a glass of wine less tempting. However, I still do enjoy some wine or beer from time to time. I’ve read it a lot online, but in my appointment with my specialist, she reminded me that drinking daily increases your risk of breast cancer, so even if I’m having a drink from time to time, avoiding that daily glass does have a positive impact.
Knowing Our Family History
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been 12 years since our mom passed away. When first filling out forms for my appointment with the specialist, I realized I didn’t know much beyond the diagnosis of my mom, grandmothers and my aunt. I went to my dad for more insight, and fortunately he knew it all—about cancer in his family and my mom’s family. If you haven’t already had these conversations with your family, I encourage you to put together a family history to have on hand for your own knowledge, to take to appointments and to share with other relatives who might need to know to assess risk.
Getting Genetic Testing
Although genetic testing has evolved so much since our mom’s death, she did get tested for the BRCA gene and found that she didn’t have it, which meant we didn’t have it either. However, I did some other testing and a rare genetic mutation—NBN—was listed in my report. This mutation is not well understood—it appears it can raise the risk for certain cancers, but without much information, it’s just a note in my record. However genetic panels can be very insightful in helping assess risk, so it can be helpful to have it done.
Practicing Breast Familiarity
Yes, I should be doing monthly self breast exams, but in reality, I’m not. This specialist was a realist—she said she knows that a lot of people aren’t doing that. The one thing she recommended was knowing your breasts so that you’d know if there was a change. And she explained that even though people do find lumps that way, many times it’s too small for someone to feel. So getting to know my breasts is something that will be a priority, even if I’m not doing it on the 1st of every month.
Yes, our risks are higher than some and less than some. I wanted to pass on my appointment insights with our readers because there are many of us with a strong family history, many of us who are trying to figure out the right path of prevention and many of us who know we can make some small changes in life that could have an impact. That’s why I’m sharing my story—as a reminder that we can be proactive in different ways to minimize risk and become knowledgeable about ourselves and our families to help us make critical decisions.
And my own journey and these experiences bring me back to why my sister and I started heart&core and why we are so committed to creating post-surgery bras for comfort and simplicity when someone is having breast cancer surgery. It is personal. It’s the understanding of what we would want our own loved one to wear that drives our design and our tiny changes in patterns along the way. In making new products based on feedback. We want to make the very best bras for a customer, a patient across the country or our relative who’s sending one to a friend. It’s our mission to make a product that we would want to wear with thoughts to make it simple, comfortable and supportive. We are on this path with you, and we will continue to support you in any way we can.