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Understanding your cancer risk and being proactive about your health may help you lower your risk for getting breast or ovarian cancer at a young age, or find it at an early stage when treatment works best.
All women can do things to lower their breast and ovarian cancer risk. Young women should learn their family health history, as this can help you learn if you have a higher risk for getting hereditary breast or ovarian cancer at a young age.
CDC’s new mobile health app My Family Health Portrait: Cancer helps you collect your family’s history of cancer and can help you understand your risk for breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer. Android users can download the app from Google Play and iOS users can download the app from the App Store.
Learning your family health history also can help you understand if you should talk to your doctor about your risk, and if genetic counseling and testing is right for you. If you learn that you have a higher risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, there are things you can do to manage your risk.
How to talk to your family about your family health history.
Learn about genetic counseling and testing, and when to talk to your doctor.
You can lower your risk of getting breast cancer and increase the chance of finding it early.