Bright Pink

There are so many important pieces of advice and lessons that we hope to pass along to the young women in our lives. Conversations about growing up and staying healthy come naturally but talking about illness isn’t always included on this list.

Taking the extra time to have the more difficult conversations with your daughter about her breast health and breast cancer risk has the power to greatly improve and extend her own life. In fact, it’s one of the brightest mother-daughter chats you can have.

Personal breast cancer risk accumulates as we age. Decisions we make in our late teens and early 20s can impact our risk of breast cancer later in life, when breast cancer is more likely to occur. And, the health habits we form at early ages can last a lifetime.

While most breast cancers are diagnosed over the age of 50, there were still over 26,000 cases diagnosed under the age 45 in 2017. If you have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer, like a BRCA mutation, we’ve started to see the incidence of cancer rising significantly in women in their 20s and 30s. Why wait to discuss something that your daughter has the chance to be proactive about now?

One in 8 women, or 12 percent of women in the country, will be diagnosed with breast cancer. However, if you have a first-degree relative (a mother, a sister, or a grandmother) who was diagnosed with breast cancer, your personal risk automatically doubles. It becomes even greater if that familial risk is coming from a genetic mutation, meaning a fault in one of the genes in your body that is charged with protecting you from cancer.

While rates of genetic mutations are relatively low, some are more common in specific populations. Black women are more likely to have a BRCA2 mutation, which can increase your risk of getting breast cancer to up to 84 percent. One in 40 Ashkenazi Jewish women have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. And, there are 

 genetic mutations that can impact breast cancer risk.

There are two things that your daughter can do today for her breast and ovarian health: Know what’s normal for her body and know her personal risk.

When talking to your daughter or other women in your family, it’s important to note that when detected early, the five-year survival rate of breast cancer rate can be greater than 98 percent. Early detection starts with establishing an understanding of what’s normal for your body so that you’re more equipped to recognize when something is abnormal.

Encourage your daughter to check in with the look and feel of her breasts regularly. Our breast tissue changes throughout the month and can look very different from person to person. It’s important for her to understand what’s normal for 

 body. You may not know that breast tissue extends up to our collarbone and down underneath our armpits.

Talk to your daughter about signs and symptoms to keep an eye out for: redness, dimpling, pulling, soreness and changes in size or shape. These symptoms may come and go, but if anything persists for two to three weeks, it’s time for her to call her doctor.

Bright Pink® is a national breast and ovarian health organization. Our interactive 

 quiz is a perfect tool to guide a conversation with your daughter about breast and ovarian cancer risk. By completing the quiz together, you can both learn more about your risk as you answer questions about your family’s health history, personal health history, and lifestyle factors.

Each question contains a “Why it Matters” section to explain how that factor contributes to your personal breast and ovarian cancer risk. If you don’t have your family health history at your fingertips, you can use the “Help Me Ask Them” button to easily email the question to a loved one.

Assess Your Risk is a great jumping-off point for your daughter to make her breast and ovarian health a priority in the years to come, but don’t let the conversation end here. The most important part is that her newfound awareness is put in action.

Encourage her to take the next step by scheduling her annual wellness woman’s exam and make healthy lifestyle behavior changes. When you do this, you’re giving her the gift of knowledge that can contribute to a healthy future.

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Taking the extra time to have the more difficult conversations with your daughter about her breast health and breast cancer risk has the power to greatly improve and extend her own life.

The Mother-Daughter Conversation You Should Have Today

For some, being home for the holidays means lots of extra family time, often with multiple generations coming together to celebrate under one roof. Most likely, your conversations at this time will center around what’s new at work or what trip you went on over the summer. This November, take advantage of this rare opportunity to take the conversation in a different, proactive direction.

 is a national nonprofit focused on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer. As up to 25 percent of breast and ovarian cancers are familial or hereditary, having an understanding of your family health history landscape can act as a powerful roadmap for you and your healthcare provider. We want to help you understand why it’s important, what information to collect, and what to do with your family health history when its collected.

Having a first-degree relative (a mother, sister, grandmother) who has had breast or ovarian cancer can double your risk.  And, if their cancer was the result of a genetic mutation, that can be passed down across generations by either parent.  When this happens, your risk of breast cancer can be as high as 87 percent and as high as 54 percent for ovarian cancer.  

There are many actions that women can take to reduce their risk or detect these cancers early (the 5-year survival rate for breast and ovarian cancer when detected early can be greater than 92 percent!) but it takes an initial understanding of that risk to identify what actions may be most meaningful for your health. 

Step 1: Collect your questions beforehand.

Between travel delays, turkey cooking time, and holiday shopping plans, the holidays can become jam-packed. That’s why Bright Pink wants to help equip you with the tools you need to gather your family health history and assess your risk, and a game plan to fit it all in to what can be a hectic long-weekend. 

When looking at your family health history, both your parents' sides are equally important in determining your personal level of risk. While breast and ovarian cancer history is important, other types of cancer can also be indicators of an inherited genetic risk—so capture everything you can. Ask:

Talking about family health history may not be part of your normal dinner discussions, and these conversations can be difficult. Consider starting the conversation this way: “I recently read about how family health history information can help prevent disease or diagnose it early. I realized that I don’t know much about this in our family! Do you mind if I ask a few quick questions to help understand what this could mean for my health?” Or, bring it up while discussing what you’re thankful for — your health, and knowledge that generations of women before us didn’t have access to – knowledge that when you know your risk, you can be proactive! 

This process isn’t foolproof, and you may have to do some digging to get all of this information. If you aren’t able to answer every question, don’t let that discourage you. You’ve taken an amazingly proactive step by collecting what you can.

After you’ve learned as much as you can about your family health history, it’s time to put that knowledge to work. Visit 

 to complete a digital quiz that asks questions about your family health history, personal health history, and lifestyle to deliver a personalized report on your baseline risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Email this report or print and bring it to your next primary care appointment!

The last item of your game plan might be the most important: 

 so we can remind you to ask about family health history again next year. This isn’t a one-and-done practice. Family health history can change from year to year. A new development could end up being the most important piece of information you need to be proactive about your health. 

Make sure you’re following Bright Pink on 

 for Thanksgiving Game Plan tips and inspiration all week leading up to Turkey Day. 

To learn even more about family health history and how that relates to your personal risk of cancer, visit Bright Pink’s 

For some, being home for the holidays means lots of extra family time. Bright Pink, a national nonprofit focused on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer, shares how women can take advantage of this opportunity to enrich their knowledge about their family's health history.
 

Make Collecting Family Health History Part of Your Thanksgiving Plans

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, but many people still aren’t aware of the symptoms and risk factors that can sometimes lead to an ovarian cancer diagnosis. It is even called the “silent killer” because symptoms are often attributed to other ailments.

You may have heard of “breast self-awareness,” a term that replaced the “breast self-exam” to more properly describe the importance of knowing your body, specifically the normal look and feel of your breasts, in order to monitor your breast health. This September, in honor of National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, Bright Pink, a national nonprofit focused on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer, is encouraging women to adapt a new term and take an active role in their health by practicing ovarian self-awareness.

A term coined by Bright Pink, "ovarian self-awareness" is defined as a recognition of one’s own ovarian health and cancer risk. Here are two steps you can take to personalize your approach to ovarian health management by being #OvarianSelfAware.

If there is a history of ovarian cancer on either side of your family — maternal or paternal – you could be a great candidate for genetic testing.  When we look at the breakdown of causes of ovarian cancer, 25 percent of ovarian cancer incidence is influenced by familial or hereditary factors. While a large number of ovarian cancer diagnoses are sporadic in nature, understanding your family health history can provide life-saving clues into your personal health.  Ask your family members these three questions:

What age were they when they were diagnosed?

Ovarian cancer has genetic links to other forms of cancer (especially breast cancer) so it’s important to get as comprehensive of an understanding of your family’s history as possible based on what information is available.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer can be vague and easily confused with menstrual or digestive issues. For this reason, ovarian cancer is often detected at a later stage, when it has already become life threatening. However, when caught early, the 5-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is greater than 92 percent. That’s why it’s so important to stay alert and aware of what is happening with your body. Some symptoms include pelvic or abdominal pain, prolonged bloating, frequent urination, constipation, and heartburn. Sound familiar? Even the healthiest women face these symptoms on a regular basis. The key is persistence. If you notice any of these symptoms persisting for 2-3 weeks, it’s time to make an appointment with a health provider and ask, “Could it be my ovaries?”

is a national nonprofit focused on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer. Together with Color, Bright Pink is empowering women to know their ovarian cancer risk and how to manage their ovarian health proactively. 

 for additional resources that will help you take a proactive, personalized approach to ovarian health management. Be #OvarianSelfAware today. And, if you’re curious to learn more about how your genetics may play a larger role in your cancer risk, take advantage of $25 off Color’s Hereditary Cancer Test in Honor of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Use the promo code BRIGHTPINK at checkout through the end of September.  

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, but many people still aren’t aware of the symptoms and risk factors that can sometimes lead to an ovarian cancer diagnosis. Here are two steps you can take to personalize your approach to ovarian health management by being "ovarian self-aware."
 

Putting Ovarian Self-Awareness in Action with Bright Pink

Women begin accumulating risk and establishing their lifestyle behaviors when they are young. What many don’t realize is that they have the power to be advocates for their health by reducing their risk or detecting these diseases at early, non-life-threatening stages.  

, a national nonprofit focused on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer, outlines 5 actions that young women can take to influence their relative risk of breast and ovarian cancer. 

Bright Pink

The Mother-Daughter Conversation You Should Have Today

Make Collecting Family Health History Part of Your Thanksgiving Plans

Putting Ovarian Self-Awareness in Action with Bright Pink

Five Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Breast and Ovarian Cancer

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