(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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