Childbirth may increase risk of breast cancer
06 January, 2019
Many believe that childbirth can protect women against breast cancer, but new findings suggest that this benefit may take 2 decades to make an appearance.
The risk of developing breast cancer differs between individuals.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that several factors come into play.
These are split into risk factors that people cannot control and ones that people can change.
For instance, people cannot change their age, genetic mutations, and family history, while they can control their weight, alcohol, and exercise levels.
One factor that some researchers believe can reduce a woman's risk of breast cancer is childbirth.
However, according to a new study, the theory that childbirth can protect a woman against breast cancer may need further clarification. The study's findings suggest that this protection does not instantly occur. Instead, it may take a considerably long time to emerge.
Researchers also found that childbirth only benefits women above a certain age when it comes to breast cancer risk levels. In fact, they found that younger women who had recently given birth experienced elevated risk levels.
The impact of childbirth
The large-scale analysis examined data from 15 studies from around the world. Scientists looked at over 800,000 women with a specific focus on factors that other studies on the topic had overlooked.
This included things that could affect breast cancer risk, such as family history of the disease and breastfeeding.
Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the study found that breast cancer risk elevated in women who had given birth and were aged 55 or younger.
This risk hit its highest point about 5 years after women had given birth. At this time, mothers in this age range had an 80 percent higher chance of developing breast cancer compared with those women who had not gone through childbirth.
The authors note that this risk was more prominent for women who fit into one of three categories: those who had a family history of breast cancer, people who were older at the time of their first birth, or those who had had more children overall. Breastfeeding appeared to have no impact.