PROJECT_print article CLient_Living Wellness Kansas City
Living Wellness Kansas City
Local Company and physician’s website encourages self exams to promote early detection.
It’s featured regularly in makeup commercials, 5K runs and pinned on football jerseys - the pink ribbon is as hot as the yellow Livestrong wristband circa 2004. And while it’s important to support those living with the disease, which affects roughly 1 in 8 women, it is also vital to have a prevention plan to catch it early or to avoid it completely.
“The number one thing is awareness,” says Crista Balanoff, MD, Menorah Medical Center, who also expresses the importance of self examination and getting yearly mammograms.
“The baseline is 40 [to begin receiving mammograms]. But if there’s a history of early breast cancer in the family, women should start about 10 years younger than the youngest person [diagnosed] in their family.” But don’t get too comfortable if you don’t have any family history: genetics, Balanoff says, only accounts for 10 to 15 percent of all breast cancer. And although there are some lifestyle risk factors, most are uncontrollable, like starting your period early (age 9), going through menopause late (after 55), or if a woman never has children or gives birth later in life, after mid-30s, she says. “It’s about being aware of changes in yourself and to take action against them. We need to be self-advocates for ourselves, our friends, our sisters.”
This awareness can sometimes be easier said than done, though. That’s why Joan Charbonneau, CEO/President of Verite’ founded the breast card, a portable step-by-step two-sided instructional card with a silicone breast model attached, lumps inside, so women know exactly what to feel for and how to perform self exams. Charbonneau developed the card roughly a decade ago when she learned most breast cancer survivors do not self-exam.
“That blew me away,” she says. So when the card launched, Charbonneau anticipated it would make a big difference in self exams. “But what I found out, more importantly, is that it’s made a difference in the conversation,” says Charbonneau. “To get women to talk about breast health, this has been a positive thing. It’s not only between the nurses and patients, but just between girlfriends.” And this conversation shouldn’t just start with middle-aged women. “When you go and get your first yearly exam, whenever that time frame is, the education needs to start. The earlier we can find anything, the greater rate of survival.”
“It wasn’t until a survivor called and she wanted to get five or six of them (cards) for her daughters, sister and mom to have, did I realize, ‘Oh my goodness, this can make a big difference in people’s lives,’ so the goal is to get the cards into as many hands as possible. We would love to see this at every mammography center and clinic across the nation.”
And for those with the disease, Balanoff advises not to fear. “I think it’s an important thing to remember this is a treatable disease, this isn’t what it was 30 or 40 years ago. This is something we can take care of, and as scary as it is, we can treat it.”