Understanding breast cancer
Breast Cancer, is the disabling disease more visible in the women and that to survive, affects their self-esteem and their social image. In the quinquennium 2009-2013 some 3,241 Nicaraguan women were diagnosed with breast cancer.
In our country, this type of cancer constitutes the second leading cause of cancer of the reproductive system after cervical cancer, with an annual incidence rate standardized by age of 31.5 and mortality of 23 per 100.000 women. However, these rates are rising as in other parts of the world.
Most women who suffer from some type of reproductive cancer live in poverty, limited access to health services, low level of school instruction, often rural areas, and poor knowledge of how to care for their health and identify the signs or warnings of her body.
“I have a story to tell you… Mine” is a documentary that narrates the experience of Dinorah Rodríguez, a woman, mother and grandmother who was diagnosed with HER2+ breast cancer, a type of cancer that is very aggressive and that, like many Dinorah´s, are treated in Hospital Bertha Calderón and battle every day against breast cancer. Her history leaves many important lessons that can serve us all.
What to look for in
breast self-examination?
Go to your nearest health center if you find at least one of the signs shown below. Remember that early-detected breast cancer can be curable.
Dimples or wrinkles in the skin
Pulled in nipple
Pain or persistent pain
NIpple dripping
Heat, darkening, redness or orange skin
Change in size and/or shape of the breast
Lump or swelling on the breast or underarm
Itching,sore or rash in the nipple area
When you see “puckering” it’s because something is blocking the breast tissue, which is not noraml; However, the discharge of whitish liquid is called Galactorrhea and it is normal.
How to perform a breast
self-examination?
Risk factors
related to lifestyle
- Alcohol consumption
- Smoking
- Overweight or obesity
- Physical inactivity
- Women who have not given birth or who gave birth to their first child after the age of 30
- birth-control pills
Risk factors
that you cannot change
- Being female
- Ageing
- Certain hereditary genes
- Family history of breast cancer
- Personal background
- Race and ethnicity: white woman have a higher risk
- Dense breast tissue