Over 55% don’t regularly check their breasts – Breast cancer awareness month

October is breast cancer awareness month, and as a result, MYA wanted to find out the habits when it comes to checking your breasts to look for anomalies.

Cosmetic surgery provider MYA has recently run research asking over 350 people about checking their breasts to find out insights into the UK’s awareness habits. Alongside asking the public, MYA also asked patients who have had breast surgery about their habits when checking their breasts.

As result of the research MYA found that:

56% of people asked do not check their breasts (197 people)
44% of people regularly check their breasts (154 people)
Only 8% of men check their pecs (20 people)
92% of males do NOT check their pecs (male breast tissue) (244 people)

Asking those who’d had breast surgery, MYA also found out that:

68% of people didn’t regularly check their breasts before surgery (163 people)
Whereas 49% of people check regularly following breast surgery (78 people)

1 in 4 people (26%) also said that their relationship with their breasts pre-surgery stopped them from checking their breasts.

Amy Scott, Head of Brand and Marketing at MYA said about the results, “It’s so important that people become comfortable with checking their breasts. If you aren’t familiar with how your breasts look and feel, then you may not know when something has changed and when it needs to be checked out professionally. It’s important to get to know your breasts to familiarise yourself if something was to change or feel irregular.

More shockingly is the number of men who don’t check their pecks. Breast cancer is something that affects all genders, and it isn’t only females who need to be checking.

The fact that over 50% of people still don’t check their breasts also suggests that even with excellent initiatives such as this awareness month, that there are a lot of people who are still not comfortable with checking their breasts. It can’t be understated how important it is to understand your own body, and in particular your breasts so that you can feel and see changes. For those who have surgery, it is equally important that they recognise their new breasts and can understand their body. If you don’t feel confident in your breasts then, as the data shows, it’s less likely that you’ll check them.”