Why Younger Women Are Getting Breast Cancer at Record Rates (And How to Reduce Your Risk)

Thaïs Aliabadi (0:00)

You know, mammograms pick up 75 to 85 percent of breast cancers. More than half of women above age 40 who had mammogram had dense breast tissue. The more dense the breast tissue is, the harder it is to catch that cancer on breast imaging. A dense breast tissue is white. Cancer lights up as white when you look at mammograms.

That little lesion, white lesion gets lost in the background. Women, if you have dense breast tissue, you need to ask for 3D mammogram because 2D mammogram is a 2D x-ray of the breast. And the radiologist will just say on the report, we wouldn't see anything. That doesn't mean there's no cancer.

Mark Hyman (0:40)

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Voting is open through October 15th. Just head to vote.signalaward.com and vote for The Dr. Hyman Show. And as always, thank you for listening, for watching, for sharing these conversations, and being part of this community. We couldn't do it without you. Welcome, Dr. A, to The Dr. Hyman Show. It's so good to have you.

Thaïs Aliabadi (3:04)

Thank you for having me.

Mark Hyman (3:06)

Well, we're going to talk about a topic today that terrifies most women, that you unfortunately experience, which is breast cancer. And unfortunately, it seems to be increasing, and particularly in younger women, who are actually having worse outcomes and higher mortality, meaning they're dying from it. This is kind of scary. And personally, I've had some very close friends who've had this and died from it, young, in their 30s, 40s. And the question is, why?

And why are we missing it? And why are these cancers being caught late? There's a screening protocol. It's now 40 years old every two years, but still.

Thaïs Aliabadi (3:45)

And I'm here to debate that.

Mark Hyman (3:47)

OK.

Thaïs Aliabadi (3:48)

I want to start by talking about access, right? 50% of counties in this country don't have an OB-GYN, 5-0, 50%.

So that's the first problem. Patients, they find lumps, they can't even go see an OB-GYN. That's number one. When women get to that medical office, whether it's their primary care or gynecologist, they're more likely to be dismissed. Their pain is minimized, their symptoms are completely ignored. And that's a fact. So I think a lot of this, that's the first, that's where we start. That's the baseline. A standard of care, I always say, in women's health is underground.