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Date: | Tue, 9 Sep 2008 08:35:02 -0400 |
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(Can't quite Wiessingerize the headline because of the way the question
is posed)
On another list, a discussion of breastfeeding and reduced cancer risk
has brought up two contradictory questions. The first: If someone is
breastfeeding a new baby around the clock, yet gets her period back at 6
weeks. would she still benefit from a reduced breast cancer risk? That
reduction seems to owe partly to the lack of periods and the associated
hormonal rise and fall, yet this person is swinging right back into the
cycle. Would any of the research take into account women's menstrual
patterns during lactation?
Then several people chimed in that their doctors had said that if a
woman is *not* menstruating at least 25% of the time, she runs an
increased risk of cancer -- which worried people who had several babies
and breastfed each for a biologically normal span, and might have gone a
decade or more with very few periods. I've never heard anything like
that, and can't seem to come up with any reference for it. Nor can I see
any rationale, since having multiple pregnancies, lots of breastfeeding
and few periods is closer to our biological norm than the modern
scenario. Someone speculated that the doctors might be extrapolating
from certain hormonal birth-control regimens where women menstruate four
times a year.
Can anyone comment on these questions. I know that breast cancer is a
complex disease, with different triggers and genetic components beyond
the hormonal influences.
Margaret Wills, LLLL, IBCLC
Maryland
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