That\u2019s a statistic you should know off the top of your head, Dr. Tha\u00efs Aliabadi,<\/a> an OB\/GYN in Beverly Hills, California, and cohost of the new podcast SHE MD<\/em><\/a>, tells Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI was diagnosed with breast cancer myself, so it\u2019s a condition that\u2019s near and dear to my heart,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t want another woman to go through what I went through.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Aliabadi, at 49 she had no genetic mutations, no family history of breast cancer, and her mammograms, ultrasounds, and MRIs were benign. However, she says a breast biopsy seven months earlier had shown precancerous cells<\/a>. She knew other components of her medical history\u2014such as having dense breasts and giving birth for the first time after age 30<\/a>\u2014heightened her risk. She determined her lifetime risk of developing breast cancer was 37%; the American College of Radiology<\/a> considers women with a lifetime risk at or above 20% to be high-risk. Aliabadi asked her doctor for a prophylactic double mastectomy<\/a>, a surgery in which both breasts are removed to lower chances of getting breast cancer.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone with 37% lifetime risk, they need regular imaging every six months and I didn\u2019t want to go through all that; I was too busy,\u201d says Aliabadi, now 53. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to get diagnosed with breast cancer, I just didn\u2019t want to deal with it. To me, that number was high, and it\u2019s a very personal decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Her doctors insisted a double mastectomy was unnecessary. Still, Aliabadi went through with the procedure. A week later, she was notified cancer had been present.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you know how many doctors at my hospital approached me the following month\u2014\u2019cause I\u2019d made a post on Instagram<\/a>\u2014and asked me, \u2018How did you calculate your lifetime risk?\u2019 And these were gynecologists,\u201d Aliabadi tells Fortune<\/em>. \u201cI realized I got breast cancer so I can change this in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Aliabadi says her dream is for every woman to know her lifetime risk of breast cancer\u2014information that could potentially save her life.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, actress Olivia Munn announced on Instagram<\/a> that she\u2019d been diagnosed with luminal B breast cancer<\/a> in 2023. The 43-year-old had tested negative for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations<\/a>, and her imaging results were normal. In spite of this, Munn\u2019s doctor, Aliabadi, assessed her breast cancer risk, which was also 37%. Further testing revealed cancer and Munn, too, opted for a double mastectomy.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have found my cancer for another year\u2014at my next scheduled mammogram\u2014except that my OB\/GYN, Dr. Tha\u00efs Aliabadi, decided to calculate my Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score,\u201d Munn wrote in a March 13 Instagram post<\/a>. \u201cThe fact that she did saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Aliabadi will soon offer a risk calculator of her own<\/a> on the SHE MD<\/em> website and declined to tell Fortune<\/em> which algorithm she used on Munn. Several free variations are accessible online, including the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool (BCRAT)<\/a>, the IBIS\/Tyrer-Cuzick Risk Assessment Calculator<\/a>, the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) Advanced Breast Cancer Risk Calculator<\/a>, and the Black Women\u2019s Health Study Breast Cancer Risk Calculator<\/a>.<\/p>\nHow do you calculate lifetime breast cancer risk?<\/h2>\n
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