Menopause Symptoms May Prevent Breast Cancer

How many women have hot flashes? Chances are pretty close to zero. But now it can be a reason to celebrate, the heat wave. The researchers say women who have hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms are falling ill at fifty percent or less risk of breast cancer, according to the Center of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research against Seattle.

"We know that hormones important for the risk of breast cancer, and we also know that the symptoms of menopause occurs mainly due to changes in hormones experienced by women as they go through menopause," said lead author and epidemiologist Breast Cancer Dr. Christopher I. Them.

The study, published in the online issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention surveyed, 1437 postmenopausal women, 988 of whom had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Women who were between 55 and 74 years, was asked about the symptoms of menopause, hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, vaginal dryness, irregular or heavy menstrual bleeding, depression and anxiety. The researchers found an association between women, the more intense hot flashes and ill with a very low risk of breast cancer was.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American women. About one in eight women in the United States (12%) developed invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. Diagnosed in the year 2010, approximately 207 090 new cases of invasive breast cancer among women in the United States, with 54 010 new cases of noninvasive breast cancer (in situ).
For women with severe symptoms of menopause, affecting the relative risk of cancer in both breasts, most common - invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular - was reduced by an average of 50 percent, than women who don not have 'the reported symptoms of menopause.