Outdated Women's Health Myths to Stop Believing Right Now

The facts: About 10 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a mother or sister who also had it, or some other strong family connection. Another 10 percent have a family member a little further down the family tree. But about 80 percent have no family history at all. The reason your doctor is so interested in your relatives is because we still don't have a better way to identify which women are at the highest risk for the disease, says Debbie Saslow, PhD, the director of breast and gynecologic cancer for the American Cancer Society. The only other risk factor that even comes close is age, she says, which is why it's important to keep up with those mammograms.