We’ve been seeing the topic of dense breasts getting significant attention in the news, highlighting the importance of understanding breast density and its implications for women's health. Dense breasts are common among women and can affect breast cancer detection. As awareness grows, it's crucial to stay informed about what dense breasts mean for your health and the steps you can take to manage your breast health effectively.
To help you do that, we asked our fellowship trained breast surgeon, Colette A. Salm-Schmid, MD, FACS, to help answer some important questions for us.
What are dense breasts?
Breasts contain three different types of tissue - glandular tissue, fibrous connective tissue, and fatty breast tissue. Dense breasts will typically have a higher amount of fibrous connective tissue and the glandular tissue, with a low amount of the fatty tissue.
Dense breasts are quite common and normal. In fact, about half of all women have at least some areas of dense tissue. You may be more likely to have dense breasts if you’re:
- Within a low BMI
- Taking hormone therapy for menopause
- Younger than 50
How do dense breasts affect my health?
While your everyday health shouldn’t be affected, having dense breasts can raise your risk for breast cancer. Women with dense breasts are considered high risk for breast cancer, even if you don’t have a family history or other breast cancer risks.
Dense breasts can also make early breast cancer detection more difficult in some breast screenings. It can be hard to tell the difference between a tumor and dense breast tissue, and because of this a small tumor may be missed.
A screening mammogram is a black and white x-ray of the breast. In a normal breast, the black portion is typically fat, and the white portion is the fibrous or glandular breast tissue. Having increased breast density increases your risk of breast cancer and makes detection more difficult because cancer also shows up as white and a dense breast can hide breast cancer.
How do I know if I have dense breasts?
Breast density can only be determined by a mammogram and cannot be felt during a breast self-exam. Recently, the FDA started requiring all breast imaging facilities to include breast density on mammography reports. On the report, breast density has four categories with different recommendations. Patients with increased breast density in category C or D may benefit from additional screenings such as a breast ultrasound or breast magnetic resonance imagining (MRI).
Manage your breast health
At AdventHealth Hendersonville, we make it easy to take control of your breast health. For those with dense breasts, we offer digital and 3D mammography with contrast to help detect cancer early. Dr. Salm-Schmid urges patients to read their mammogram report and learn their breast density category. If you are in category C or D, talk with your doctor or breast specialist about how often you should be screened, and which tests your doctor recommends.
To learn more about comprehensive cancer and breast health care at AdventHealth, please visit AdventHealthWNC.com or call Call855-774-LIFE (5433).
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