For many years if you had asked the question “Could a girl get breast cancer before she gets her period? “ you probably would have been laughed at by even a medical professional. Breast cancer is a disease long associated with older women; it is not even recommended that a woman consider having a mammogram until they are over the age of forty unless they have a strong family history of the disease.

However the much publicized story Hannah Powell – Auslam changed all that. She was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer at the age of just ten years old, at an age when she was at least a year or so from ever beginning menstruation.

The form of breast cancer she was diagnosed with – invasive secretory carcinoma – has in fact been diagnosed in several hundred young women in the past, been many doctors feel that Hannah may be the youngest yet.

Hannah’s treatment had to take the same course as many an adult female breast cancer case; she had to undergo a mastectomy, followed by chemo and radiation to ensure that the cancer was indeed all gone.

Though cases like this young woman’s are rare they do occur and doctors are beginning to recognize that breast cancer can indeed occur far earlier than forty, especially if a woman has a strong family history of the disease.

For instance when she was a teenage starlet on the Fox comedy show “Married with Children” actress Christina Applegate had to deal with the fact that her mother, Nancy Priddi, was battling breast cancer, from which she fortunately recovered completely. The shock came when the actress herself was diagnosed with the same genetically affected form of breast cancer in 2008 at the age of thirty five. Although cancer was found only in one breast Applegate opted for a bilateral mastectomy, something that is becoming more of a trend amongst women with a family history such as Nancy and Christina’s.

In conclusion, no it is very rare that a girl who has yet to experience her first period will develop breast cancer but it is not a complete impossibility. If a young woman of any age finds a new lump or mass in her breast it should be investigated by a doctor. Although it is likely that such a lump would be perfectly harmless one can never be to careful.