Olivia Newton-John Launches the Liv Aid in Austria

The Liv Aid (Liv Tastpad in Austria) is a kit of self-examination to help to the early detection in breast cancer.

What makes the Liv Aid different from using your bare hands?

It helps you to perform a proper and correct breast self exam every time. But before we talk about the Liv Aid in detail, lets find out what experts think about breast self examination in general.

While breast self exams are a common practice, not all experts recommend them.

Some experts say that there is not enough scientific evidence to show that monthly breast self-exams reduce the number of women dying from breast cancer. They also say breast self exams sometimes lead to anxiety and unnecessary tests. Other experts say that breast self-exams find cancers that other tests miss. They also say that self-exams help women become more familiar with their breasts and let them find changes that may need to be checked out.

At Liv, we believe that monthly breast self examination needs to support regular mammograms.

Why? Because women have told us so. Many women like Olivia Newton-John did regular breast self exams, found a suspicious lump, got further testing and are fine today. It is important to understand that most women have some lumpiness in their breasts and most breast lumps are caused by conditions other then cancer. We know of women who feel a difference in lumpiness when they change their diet or drink less coffee.

The most common cause of lumpiness is “fibrocystic” disease, a noncancerous condition that affects more than half of ALL women (that means hundreds of millions of women).

Common signs of fibrocystic breasts include lumpiness, tenderness, and breast pain. Having fibrocystic breasts can sometimes make it more difficult to detect breast cancer, but it does not increase your risk of getting it. Cysts are another common cause of lumps. They are fluid-filled sacs that can develop inside a breast.

Now, let’s talk about the Liv Aid again and how it helps breast self examination.

Most women in the US and worldwide do not do breast self examination. When asked, most women respond that they would like to check their breasts regularly but they don’t, mainly because of one of the following reasons. Many women are either intimidated by breast self examination, confused on how to do it correctly or just so busy with their daily lives that they forget. The Liv Aid eliminates all of these concerns because it makes breast self examination a professional and easy routine to perform.

For more info on the Liv Aid, see http://www.liv.com/liv_and_learn.php