Among known MD and breast cancer risk SNPs, we identified four variants that were associated with V at the Bonferroni-corrected thresholds accounting for the number of SNPs tested: rs335189 (5q23.2) in PRDM6, rs13256025 (8p21.2) in EBF2, rs11836164 (12p12.1) near SSPN, and rs17817449 (16q12.2) in FTO. We observed significant genetic correlations between V and mammographic dense area (rg = 0.79, P = 5.91 × 10−5), percent density (rg = 0.73, P = 1.00 × 10−4), and adult BMI (rg =  − 0.36, P = 3.88 × 10−7). Here, FTO is linked to breast cancer.