QuestionHi
thank you for your prompt reply to my question about my mother's benign calcifications.
With respect to my aunt's breast cancer, she claimed that her doctors told her it was of a type that was not typically genetic, and that my mother probably wouldn't need tamoxiphene since there was no other family history.
Aunt's cancer was post-menopausal, which I have heard is not so often genetically-related. Am I wrongly informed?
My mother, it seems, does not have breast cancer (although I will pass on your advice about that second opinion). She does have a tendency to get benign cysts in her breast which have sometimes needed draining, and I read (only on net) that calcification can sometimes be caused by such cysts.
As for me, I am 33, have only one child and may not have anymore (I am divorced). I have never taken the pill for any length of time and the other day I read (in newspaper, this time!) that contraceptive pill taken continuously (ie with only occasional breaks for periods) might lower one's risk of breast cancer.
The theory was that Western women are flooding their bodies with too many BC-causing hormones because of less babies and more menstrual cycles (this doctor even claimed it was 'unnatural' for women to have twelve cycles a year, and it was not the norm in non-Western countries!)
Is there anything to this? If I WAS genetically at risk would it do me any good to go on the Pill?
Thanks for your patience (this has been a bit long).
Cathy
AnswerWell, it is difficult to say if you have any genetic risk or not under those circumstances. Statistically there IS an increased risk for a woman if her mother or a sister has had it, even more so if BOTH a mother and a sister have had it. Hormones DO play a role. The earlier you start having menstruations and the later you stop having them the greater the risk. LARGE women and TALL women are at a higher risk. The more children you have the lesser the risk. If you have your first child very early, the risk is lower. If you breast feed your children the risk is lower. Still genetics can be an important factor in an individual case. Yes given all the mammography evidence it is probable that she does not have it and benign calcifications can be associated with cysts. However the fibrocystic breast condition (it is so common that I do not like to call it a disease)is most often also hormone connected. Usually it gets better after menopause. Given what I have written above there is a lot of truth in what you read in the newspaper - breast cancer is a lot more uncommon in societies with a different female life style, but since there may be other health problems involved with a long term use of the pill I will not recommend it. You will have to discuss it with your own dr. Good luck!
