Extended
breastfeeding may help ward off endometriosis
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[September 13, 2017] By
Anne Harding
(Reuters Health) - Women who nurse their
babies are less likely to develop endometriosis, and the longer they
breastfeed, the lower their risk, a new study shows.
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“For women who are interested in reducing their risk for
endometriosis, breastfeeding is one potential modifiable way that
women can reduce their risk,” Dr. Leslie V. Farland of Harvard
Medical School in Boston, one of the study’s authors, told Reuters
Health in a telephone interview. “I think the research builds off of
what we already know, that breastfeeding can be beneficial for both
mother and child.”
About 10 percent of women in the U.S. have endometriosis, in which
tissue that lines the uterus is also found growing outside the womb,
usually in the pelvic area. Endometriosis causes chronic pain and
can lead to fertility problems. There is no cure. Treatments include
pain medication, hormone therapy, surgery to remove the misplaced
uterine tissue and in some cases total hysterectomy.
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Some researchers have proposed that that retrograde menstruation, in
which menstrual blood “backs up” through the uterus into the
fallopian tubes and out into the abdomen, could eventually lead to
endometriosis. Because many women stop menstruating while they are
breastfeeding, being exposed to fewer periods could thus have a
protective effect.
Dr. Farland and her team looked at 72,394 women participating in the
Nurses’ Health Study who had been pregnant for at least six months.
None had endometriosis at the beginning of the study.
During follow-up, 3,296 were diagnosed with endometriosis. Women who
had breastfed for at least three years during their reproductive
years were 40 percent less likely to develop endometriosis than
those who breastfed for less than a month. On a per-pregnancy basis,
each additional three months of nursing was associated with an 8
percent lower endometriosis risk.
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Women who stopped menstruating for six to 12 months after their
baby’s birth were 42 percent less likely to develop endometriosis
than those who never missed a period after pregnancy.
But exposure to fewer menstrual periods accounted for only some of
the protective effect of breastfeeding. Dr. Farland and her
colleagues suggest that the hormonal changes women experience during
breastfeeding, including higher oxytocin levels and lower estrogen
levels, could also play a role.
“Our results aren’t generalizable to women who have endometriosis
before pregnancy,” Dr. Farland said. Future studies should
investigate whether breastfeeding could reduce symptoms in these
women, she added, and clarify the mechanism responsible for
breastfeeding’s protective effect.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2wXGJ8y The BMJ, online August 29, 2017.
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