Why does breastfeeding help protect against breast cancer? We are not sure. One reason may be that it reduces the lifetime exposure to estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone produced mainly in the ovaries in premenopausal women (and mainly in fat tissue in postmenopausal women). Higher amounts of estrogen in the blood are linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women and a possible link to breast cancer among premenopausal women is under study. During breastfeeding, the level of estrogen produced by the ovaries is less than at other times. For more information on breastfeeding and breast cancer risk: sgk.mn/1lsJGjR #WBW2014
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 01:00:00 +0000