The article in Mayo Clinic Women s HealthSource describes four memory aids that can help people remember numbers, names and lists. Some Women Evaluate their Risks Results of recent genetic research answer a few questions about breast cancer, but they raise many others, according to the April Mayo Clinic Women s HealthSource. In 1996, a blood test became available to detect defects in one of two known genes responsible for hereditary breast cancer. When these genes are mutated, women have as much as an 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer by age 70. But only one in every few hundred women in the general population inherits a defective gene.
Women can learn more about their own genetic risks for breast cancer by studying their relatives.
In these lower-risk families, one genetic abnormality probably is not responsible for the cancer, and genetic testing probably is not necessary. For these reasons, Mayo Clinic Women s HealthSource recommends that only women whose family histories place them at high risk should consider genetic testing. Some women develop yeast infections if they take antibiotics for a week to kill bacteria causing urinary tract infections. But if they take only a single dose, one of five women won t clear the bacterial infection. About 7 million women take antibiotics each year to ease the burning pain, pressure and frequent urge to urinate that signal a urinary tract infection.