No Pregnancies - Am I High Risk

By choice I have elected not to have children.  I am soon to be 39 and have heard that because of never bearing children I am at high risk for breast cancer.  In addition, I lost my grandmother and my aunt to breast cancer.

Would you please explain why I am at high risk?

Thank you

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear Rainydaze, Risk factors refers to identifiable factors that make some people more susceptible than others to a particular disease.  A risk factor is usually determined by taking a large population of people and identifying a variety of features about them, and determining who gets the disease under study, and then seeing what the relationship is between the disease and the features that commonly occur within the group.  In breast cancer, there have been various risk factors identified, such as family history, age, early start of menstruation or first pregnancy after 30 or no pregnancy. There are theories as to why such factors as early start of menstruation or first pregnancy after 30 or no pregnancy may affect breast cancer but at this time no definite reason has been proven.

The determination of a person