This October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month will inspire millions of American women to get a mammogram, log on to a breast cancer Web site or talk to a doctor about the disease. But there's one group of women that I'd like to see ignore these messages--women in their twenties and thirties. Yes, that's right: I, Dr. Susan Love, surgeon, breast cancer advocate and champion of breast cancer patients, am saying that young women should worry about breast cancer a little bit less.

I don't say this lightly, believe me. Caring for breast cancer patients has meant I've held the hands of more dying women than I care to count. But the degree to which many young women are worrying about breast cancer is far out of proportion to their actual risk. The truth is, in your twenties and thirties you're more likely to die from a car accident or freak injury than of breast cancer.

Still, young women commonly cite breast cancer as their number-one health fear, and that kind of anxiety takes its toll. Consider this story from a nurse-practitioner at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston: A 28-year-old came to her two years ago with a common, benign condition known as a fibroadenoma, a thickening of connective tissue that is no more likely to become cancerous than other tissue in the breast. Her breasts were forming tiny lumps, but they were harmless lumps. Ordinarily, women with this condition have their first lump biopsied. Once the test reveals that mass to be noncancerous, doctors rarely recommend further treatment. But this patient, a healthy young woman with no family history of breast cancer, was so unnerved by having any lumps in her breasts that, over a period of two years, she insisted on having three fibroadenomas not just biopsied but surgically removed. One biopsy can cost as much as $1,500--a price tag that doesn't include the sleepless nights she must have spent worrying about the results or the tiny scars that will remain on her breasts.

The reason this woman put herself through such anguish? She told the nurse-practitioner she'd heard too many horror stories of young patients who were told by their doctor not to worry and who later found out they had breast cancer. Sadly, doctors do sometimes brush aside a young woman's breast-health Concerns only to see her later diagnosed with breast cancer. And young women who get this disease can share heartbreaking challenges: In addition to the rigors of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, they may become infertile before they've even had a chance to have a family. Patients with children may worry about leaving them motherless.

I'm an adviser to the Young Survival Coalition because I want to see these women get the special support and care they deserve. But here's the reality: Young women with breast cancer are few and far between. According to the American Cancer Society, 1,100 women under age 30 will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year, and 100 of them will die--that's only .3 percent of all breast cancer deaths. Women in their thirties comprise just 3.6 percent of breast cancer deaths. It is tragic when a young woman dies, but the reality, thank goodness, is that the average age of first diagnosis is 62; the majority of women who die from breast cancer are older than 65. Of the 80 million women under 40 in this country, about one one- hundredth of one percent are diagnosed with breast cancer. Unless you have a family history, being terrified of the disease when you're young is like looking at a blue sky and fretting that you'll be struck by lightning.

Why are young women so frightened? The way the media and advocacy groups portray this as a young woman's disease is certainly one reason women are so apprehensive. These cases are riveting -- but seeing them over and over again makes readers and viewers think they're the only cases out there. Whenever I'm asked to appear on TV for a show about breast cancer, the producers almost always ask me for the names of young patients and survivors, and I usually say no unless they agree to include older women. Sometimes that means they no longer want me on their show.

We doctors see how these messages can provoke anxiety in young women. I heard the story of one patient who had her first mammogram at 32 and has been back 13 times in three years, insisting she feels a lump. Now 38, this well-educated wife and mother continues to worry because she believes she has a family history of breast cancer. Her doctor has spent hours trying to reassure her that having one grandmother who got breast cancer after menopause does not put her at heightened risk -- it's having an immediate family member who was diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age or ovarian cancer that raises your risk. The woman says she understands this, at least intellectually. But her emotions are another matter. She says she just wishes she could get through a day without wondering when she'll get breast cancer. Maybe she's notcrazy; maybe we're making her crazy.

The best breast-health message

There's so much pressure on young women to do all they can to beat breast cancer that some groups have even gone into high schools to teach teens how to do a breast self-exam, or BSE. I know these groups are well-meaning, but really, high school? Consider the facts: Good randomized, controlled studies show that BSEs do not help detect breast cancer any earlier than simply finding a lump by accident would. What's more, the test doesn't significantly reduce a woman's chances of dying from the disease. These findings recently prompted the ACS to revise its guidelines to say that monthly BSEs are not necessary. Yes, it's important to know your breasts. But if you're taught in your teens to search for a land mine every month, your breasts seem more like the enemy than a friendly part of your body.

I'm not suggesting that women wait helplessly for breast cancer to strike. There are steps you can take when you're young that will lower your risk of breast cancer when you're older. First and foremost, exercise and maintain a Healthy weight by eating lots of fruits and vegetables. Studies show that these steps may help control the amount of estrogen you're exposed to and therefore reduce your risk. Avoid heavy drinking. And stop smoking. Although scientists haven't found a definitive link, I believe it will cut your chances of breast cancer, not to mention heart disease and lung cancer, the two leading causes of death in women. And if possible, breast-feed your baby. Researchers aren't sure why nursing lowers breast cancer risk but suspect that it triggers hormonal changes and suppresses ovulation.

I also don't mean to imply that no woman should worry about breast cancer. While many young women overestimate their odds of getting the disease, older, menopausal women are shockingly uninformed about their risk. As a result, many of them don't get regular mammograms, and some of those who do get breast cancer are given substandard treatment. For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it's high time we change our goals. Women's magazines with a young audience could suggest that their readers help their mothers and grandmothers get informed about breast cancer. Television talk shows could invite older breast cancer patients as guests. And why not launch a Breast Appreciation Month? Your breasts should be a source of pleasure and delight, especially when you're young. For too long, we've had a sort of schizophrenic relationship with our breasts. We've seen them as devices for attracting partners on the one hand and as time bombs on the other; as objects that can be surgically enhanced to make us more alluring or lopped off in order to protect our health. Your breasts are not the enemy; they are part of you and your beauty. Isn't that worth celebrating?