What do you think causes breast cancer?

I'm going to answer under the premise that breast cancer is present 5 to 7 years before diagnosis. Based on that, I'm pretty sure I know EXACTLY what caused mine. First, I lived in a house leaking radon for a whole year before I knew about it. Also, I cared more about my yard than my health and superfluously fertilized, round-upped, etc. Not unlike all the junk in make-up and personal care products...just didn't care. I also think that chemically treated water played a huge part. Pesticide treated food and processed foods played a part. Finally, a stressful event. Not the everyday kind of stress (though I'm sure that doesn't help), but the bring you to your knees kind of stress. All of the previous things combined...the stressful event was the final nail in the coffin.

I've changed EVERYTHING about my previous lifestyle. If only I could go back.....Thank gawd my children were young enough that I could change theirs.

Actually research has been done & birth control pills only pose a very mimimal risk factor.

If they knew what caused it they could figure out how to prevent it. The problem is that breast cancer is an umbrella term for a lot of different kinds of cancers, so there is not a single "fix". Many women who did everything "right" still got breast cancer. We've got thin, fit,athletic, vegetarian,nonsmoker, nondrinkers here too.

I figure it is just the luck of the genetic draw. I'm not going to beat myself up trying to figure out what I did "wrong " to get ovarian cancer & LCIS. Probably the same reason my dad's mom & sister both got colon cancer, though I tested negative for what they know now at this time for genetic syndromes.

The b/c pill studies were retroactive, so they did cover women who had taken them for long periods of time. I didn't say no risk factor, but it is very low. I went back on them for a couple of years in my late forties for perimenopausal bleeding. I don't believe they caused mine.

Women got breast cancer long before most of the things I see people trying to blame it on even existed. Cancer is a disease of aging. As fewer of us die of heart disease & things we've learned to prevent or successfully treat more of us will die of some kind of cancer. There was a very good article on that, I believe published in the NYTs

i had multiple failed pregnancies and two live births. I often wonder if the constant hormone Flux from being pregnant and miscarrying multiple times had some effect. I do know that as soon as I was diagnised, my doctor said "stop taking your bc right now. Just to be safe" and I remember thinking...huh?

I have had bc twice once in my 30's as a non smoking, non drinking, thin, running vegetarian...still got TN....then just last year, same life style only this time vegan and got HER2+. Triple positive bc. I never took hormones and was put into chemopause 25 yrs ago after my first round of chemo. I've had several types of genetic testing which turned up nothing. My drs seem to think ( I do too) that this all happened from being exposed to radiation as an infant as according to my life style I was doing everything right... Go figure! I find it insanely frustrating as it really does seem no one knows for sure what really causes bc as bc is such a tangle of different cancers, genetic factors etc.

I was wondering this myself. I was on birth control for 15 years.

I am a healthy height and weight 5'7 143 pounds. . I excerise at least 30 minutes 6 days a week. Eat right no fast food . Drink socially no family history on mother or fathers side.

I think BC goes after healthy bodies.

For me, I think HRT that I went on for perimenopausal symptoms including sleep apnea, insomnia and joint pain. Maybe there was something small there for a long time that I never noticed as I have always had lumpy, dense breasts and cysts. However, THE lump seemed to appear overnight. Unfortunately, I ignored it for too long, even though it kept nagging at me. Anyway, when just on bio-identical progesterone, I didn't notice many changes. It wasn't until we added bio-identical estradiol with a tiny bit of estriol did I notice major changes in my breasts. I was only on it for one year :-(. My onc said I'd already helped my situation a great deal by going off HRT plus I am also on Tamoxifen. I am trying my best to cut out plastics, but here in Mexico, everything is packed in plastic, even the hydroponic lettuce :-(.

That is so interesting. And then I have a friend who was on BC for years and got TNBC. Crapshoot, you are right.

I agree with Rose50, it's the devil. I am positive.

There was a discussion about this a while back. You might find it helpful:

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/79/topic/...

ok, so I ran through it real quick and it got a little ugly on there....that sucks as it would have been a great discussion...

Yeah, unfortunately that thread did get rather snarky. Hopefully, things won't take that turn here ;-).

mine is due to mens bodies getting tired of us, at around 65 to 70, sometimes start converting testosterone to estrogen in our body fat. in an effort to get rid of us.

Rebamafan - other than genetic issues - which aren't your fault - do NOT beat yourself up for even one minute that you 'caused' your cancer. Weight & stress are part of life. if you read the earlier posts, most of us have come down to the belief that in fact, it was the luck of the draw, or a crap shoot, or your number came up. If you want to get genetic testing - fine. Otherwise just try to live as healthy a life as you can without going overboard. EVERYTHING IN MODERATION.