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Breast density
One of the issues we've discussed here is breast density. Coincidentally, I received a copy of the University of California at Berkeley Wellness Newsletter this week with an article on that subject.
To sum it up: dense breasts have more glandular and connective tissue but the only way to know if your breasts are dense is via mammogram. Breast shape and size have nothing to do with density. However, density is a risk factor for cancer. Five US states now require mammogram providers to tell women if they have dense breasts.
Sorry--no link to the article as it's by subscription only.
Filed under Bras ups and downs
4 comments
long long time ago there was a website densebreast.org where they talked extensively about the topic. That site has been down for q number of years now.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010124025100/http://www.densebreast.org/
I don't know how negligible is breast density on breast weight, but once there is enough breast mass more weight can have some effect on the shape, as much as skin elasticity as well... just to add more variables to the puzzle.
What I have heard -- but I don't know if it's true -- is that the increased risk mostly comes from the fact that things are simply more difficult to spot in dense tissue than in less dense tissue and are therefore often found later, which results in a poorer prognosis. Anyway, this is what the ultrasound lady told me when I went in a couple of years ago to have some irregular 'lumpiness' checked out. My breasts were very small -- '32A'-ish, I thought, but I wasn't really wearing any bras back then -- but according to her they were dense and it was therefore difficult to tell what was going on (as nothing was found the conclusion was "most likely related to hormonal fluctuation").
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