Due to the recent guidelines about breast cancer detection, I was shocked when I read in our local newspaper that a woman medical director said that 80% of women with breast cancer have no known risk factors.
Does this mean that 80% of these women never took the birth control pill? If they did, they gave themselves a known risk factor. Dr. Chris Kahlenborn’s research was published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings (October 2006). He clearly states that women who took the birth control Pill prior to the birth of their first child sustained a 44% average increased risk of developing pre-menopausal breast cancer (compared to women who never took the Pill) and that this risk increased to 52% for women who took the Pill for at least four years prior to the birth of their first child.
Did they not have children? If they did have children, did they not breastfeed? If they did not breastfeed, these women failed to take advantage of a known risk-reduction factor.
At our website we provide an excellent booklet, Breast Cancer: Risks and Prevention written by Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S. and Joel Brind, Ph.D. Everyone should read this booklet. You may download it. It is only 22 pages. Any young teenager or woman concerned about her health should read this booklet. Any man who is interested in his wife’s health should never encourage her to take the pill and should do all he can to encourage her to breastfeed their children. All parents should read it so they will not allow their daughter to take the Pill for acne or any other reason.
Sheila Kippley