Breast Cancer Risk Assessments: What You Need to Know
Updated on October 28, 2025
Everyone has some risk of developing breast cancer. Yours may be higher or lower, depending on specific risk factors.
It’s a good idea to find out your personal risk of breast cancer as early as possible so that you and your doctor can develop a breast cancer screening strategy that makes sense for your individual situation. Risk also changes over time, so it’s important to have your risk re-evaluated every few years.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American College of Radiology recommend that all women, but especially Black women and women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, be evaluated by a doctor to find out if they’re at higher-than-average risk for breast cancer no later than age 25.
Determining your breast cancer risk
Medical guidelines categorize breast cancer risk levels based on your lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.
Average risk is less than 15%.
Intermediate risk is 15% to 19%.
High risk is 20% or greater.
The best, and often easiest, way to find out whether you’re at average, intermediate, or high risk for breast cancer is to ask your primary care doctor, gynecologist, or a provider at a breast clinic or genetics clinic to do a risk assessment.
Breast cancer risk calculators and other tests
There are a variety of tools that providers may use to assess breast cancer risk, including breast cancer risk calculators. (Some common ones are the Gail model and Tyrer-Cuzick model.)
You might also choose to use one of the online calculators to learn about your risk, but those aren’t a substitute for getting a comprehensive risk assessment by a healthcare provider. If you do use one of these calculators, be sure to ask your provider to help you interpret your results.
Your healthcare provider may suggest that you get genetic testing if you haven’t done so already and you have certain risk factors such as a family history of breast cancer.
Breast cancer risk factors
Your breast cancer risk may be higher than average if:
you have mutations (changes) in certain genes that increase your lifetime risk of breast cancer, such as a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation
you have a first-degree relative (parent, sibling, or child) who was found to have a gene mutation linked to a higher risk of breast cancer, but you have not had genetic testing yet
you have a family history of breast cancer, meaning that one or more of your close relatives have had breast cancer. The risk is higher if a relative developed breast cancer before the age of 50 or if the relative was male
you had radiation therapy to your chest before the age of 30
you've been diagnosed with certain non-cancerous breast conditions that can increase the risk of breast cancer, such as lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS), atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH), or atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH)
There are many other breast cancer risk factors — some of which raise your risk more than others, and some of which you have the power to change. Also, some of the risk factors for breast cancer have yet to be discovered.
Risk and breast cancer screening recommendations
Your healthcare provider should take into account your personal risk for breast cancer and medical history when making recommendations about when you should start getting mammograms or other types of breast imaging to screen for breast cancer and how often to get them.
Before talking with your provider about your screening plan, you might want to read up on the latest mammogram screening guidelines published by various medical organizations.
If a mammogram shows you have dense breast tissue, you may want to ask your provider if they recommend that you get a breast MRI or ultrasound in addition to routine mammograms. This is because dense breasts may make it harder for doctors to see breast cancer on mammograms. Also, having extremely dense breast tissue slightly raises your risk of developing breast cancer. Adding other breast imaging (supplemental screening) to mammograms may lower the risk that cancer will be missed.
Lowering your risk
Some breast cancer risk factors can’t be changed, such as your genetics or family history. But there are lifestyle choices you can make, like limiting alcohol intake, quitting smoking, and exercising regularly, that could lower your risk of breast cancer.
People who have a much higher-than-average risk of breast cancer (for example, people with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations) can consider risk-reducing strategies, like getting a prophylactic (preventive) mastectomy or taking hormonal therapy.
Talk with your provider about the steps you can take to keep your individual risk of breast cancer as low as possible.
