Breast Cancer Focus Of Women’s Health Month

November 18, 2009
By Blair Martin
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Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) - In an effort to promote health awareness about women’s issues for active-duty female Sailors as well as Navy spouses and family members, Naval Health Clinic Hawaii’s (NHCH) health promotions department is currently featuring women’s health.

“Right now, the clinic is wanting to target all active-duty women and their beneficiaries,” said Tracy Navarrete, health promotions director. “We want to give awareness to prevention on all these [female-related] issues so that everyone will continue with their annual checkups. We want to educate our Navy [community] because early detection is key to combating these issues.”

Eleanor Bru, a registered nurse for health promotions, explained that breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, one woman dies every 12 minutes in the U.S. from breast cancer and one out of eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. The statistics also show that breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women 35 to 54 years of age.

“We are working with our radiology department to encourage more females to make their annual mammogram appointment,” said Eleanor Bru, a registered nurse for health promotions. “Water bottles filled with informative brochures, pins and fliers also will be offered to all of our female patients during this month.”

Bru explained that women should conduct annual screening tests, such as self-breast exams, monthly after the age of 20. Women age 40 and above should receive annual mammogram exams during their annual checkups.

While conducting a self-breast exam, women should watch for the following: lump or mass in the breast; changes in the breast size, shape, skin texture or color; skin redness or scaliness; dimpling or puckering within the breast; nipple changes or discharge; and the nipple pulling to one side or a change in direction.

Another preventive measure is regular exercise four or more hours a week. This will decrease estrogen levels and help shed excess weight, lowering the risk of breast cancer.

Another women’s health-related topic featured currently is cervical cancer. Marjorie Pluss, a registered nurse for health promotions, said the Makalapa clinic offers HPV vaccinations to female patients age 9 to 26 years old.

“This vaccine protects against a certain number of strands of human papillomavirus [HPV], not all of them, but many that could indicate HPV,” she said. “HPV is known to be one of the leading culprits of cervical cancer, so by providing this vaccination we hope to greatly reduce the threat of cervical cancer in our [Navy] community.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of cancer death for women in the U.S. Current research reports that more than 11,000 cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed this year.

Pluss also added that smoking is another leading factor in adverse female health-related issues.

“Actually, females who smoke greatly increase their chances of breast cancer, not to mention osteoporosis and heart disease,” she explained. “That is why [health promotions] also is encouraging those who are smokers to participate in our tobacco cessation classes held monthly.”

Health promotions offers four tobacco cessation classes every month at both Makalapa and Kaneohe clinics. At Makalapa clinic, classes are held every Wednesday from 10 to 11 a.m. and at Kaneohe clinic, classes are held every Tuesday from 1 to 2 p.m. A healthy heart class also is offered the third Thursday each month from 10 to 11 a.m. at Makalapa Health Clinic.