Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi

The higher the density, the higher your lifetime risk of breast cancer.

Patients who have children after age 30 are at a higher risk, women who haven't had children, women with family history, women with genetic mutations.

So you answer these questions and at the end of it, it will calculate

your risk of breast cancer over the next 10 years or over your lifetime.

If that number is 20% or more, you can go to your doctor's office for your well-woman exam after you ask for your egg count and your pelvic ultrasound.

You ask them for breast imaging, especially if you have a first degree relative, mom,

sister, daughter with breast cancer, that significantly increases your risk.

If that risk is north of 20%, you need to ask your doctor for breast imaging as early as 30.

That's why I had a girl on my podcast at 34, she has stage four breast cancer.

Had she been treated and diagnosed, and I'll tell you her story, it's really devastating.

So it's important to know your lifetime risk of breast cancer.

Patients who fall into the high-risk category, 20% or more, in addition to mammogram, if they have dense breast tissue, they need to ask for ultrasound of the breast.

And for high-risk patients, 20% or more, in addition to mammogram and ultrasound, they need to ask for a breast MRI.

Now, if your doctor writes for a breast MRI, it's probably not going to get covered by insurance.

But if your doctor writes patient is high-risk, lifetime risk is 28%,

then your insurance company has to cover, right?

So that's how they test doctors.

They want to see that lifetime risk on the prescription order in order to approve it.

But they can still not approve it, but that's another discussion.

So it's important to know your lifetime risk of breast cancer.