How Kylie's helped Kiwis

Kylie Minogue's brush with breast cancer has made women more aware of the illness. Picture / Reuters

Scores of young women worried about the threat of breast cancer have been visiting doctors in the wake of pop star Kylie Minogue's encounter with the killer disease.

Doctors at an Auckland women's health clinic have noticed a 10 per cent increase in the number of women in their 30s visiting the clinic wanting a breast check or frightened that a breast lump or breast pain may mean cancer.

Minogue, 36, underwent surgery last month to remove a lump from her breast soon after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

BreastScreen Aotearoa programme manager Moira McLeod said operators at the call-centre for Auckland and Northland estimated they had taken roughly 50 per cent more calls in the past month from women making an appointment for a mammogram, and many had made reference to Kylie Minogue.

St Marks Woman's Health breast surgeon John Harman said he had also noticed a rise in women seeking mammograms.

Women as young as 25 had been coming in to get their breasts checked, despite breast cancer being very rare at that age, he said.

Dr Jackie Blue, a breast physician at St Marks, said news of Minogue's breast cancer also appeared to have triggered a rise in the number of older women getting mammograms.

Last month, St Marks performed 850 mammograms, 120 more than the previous June. Breast cancer used to be considered an ageing disease, but rates were climbing in younger women, Dr Blue said. The rise was particularly noticeable among women aged 35 to 39.

Latest figures from the New Zealand Health and Information Service showed that the incidence of breast cancer in this age group rose from 57.6 to 67.7 per 100,000 between 1996 and 2000.

"It's scary," Dr Blue said. "We've been saying it's an old woman's disease - it's not. It's becoming a younger woman's disease."

Dr Blue said breast cancer was linked to genetic, dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors, and that modifying dietary and lifestyle factors - eating a low-fat, high-fibre diet, exercising and keeping bodyweight steady - may lower the risk.

More than 2400 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and 640 die.

The rate of breast cancer rises steeply from age 40 onwards.

A free mammogram is available through BreastScreen Aotearoa for women aged 45 to 69, but doctors recommend women have an annual mammogram from age 40.

Risk factors

* Onset of the menstrual cycle before the age of 12 and menopause after 50 causes increased risk of developing breast cancer.

* Diets high in saturated fat.

* Family history of breast cancer.

* Moderate alcohol intake: more than two alcoholic beverages a day.

* Moderate obesity: The relationship of breast cancer to obesity is more complex but associated with an increased risk. 

- HERALD ON SUNDAY