What is Dense Breast Tissue and How Does It Affect Your Health?

The term "dense breasts" may sound straightforward, but do you know how to tell if you've got them or what health implications they might have? We explain dense breast tissue in this video and how it can affect your risk of breast cancer. Breasts are not consisting exclusively of fat.

They are made of fatty as well as non-fatty tissue. The non-fatty tissue is made up of milk glands, milk ducts, and other supporting, fibrous tissue types. Dense breasts have more fatty tissue compared to fatty tissue.

Just enough, right? It's not that fast. It's not always easy to figure out if you have dense breasts or not, as you can't just tell them by feeling or looking at them. A mammogram is the only way to know if you have dense breasts.

Younger women are more likely to have dense breasts, but at any age they may have them. Your breast tissue density also plays a major role in your health. Dense breasttissue, for example, can make it more difficult to spot cancer. Fatty breast tissue appears dark on mammograms, while dense breast tissue appears white. Unfortunately, on mammograms, tumors also appear white, which can make distinguishing them from dense breast tissue more difficult for doctors.

And while experts aren't sure why, women with dense breasts may have a slightly higher breast cancer risk than women with less dense breasts. How important a risk factor dense breast tissue is for the disease is unclear, but for women with dense breasts, doctors may recommend more frequent mammograms, or additional screening tests such as ultrasounds or MRIs.

The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to know your breast cancer family history, discuss your breast cancer risk with your doctor, and contact your ASAP health care provider if you notice any changes in your breasts. Would you like to learn more? See the above video.