HAVING FEWER CHILDREN MEANS HIGHER CANCER FOR WOMEN

OXFORD, England, July 19, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Modern feminist culture, which influences millions of women to choose careers and materialism over motherhood and a large family, imposes a higher risk of breast cancer on its victims.  Researchers led by Valerie Beral of Cancer Research UK in Oxford, England, studied data from 30 developed countries in 47 epidemiological surveys of childbearing and breastfeeding among 97,000 women who were healthy and 50,000 who developed invasive breast cancer. Women with breast cancer had fewer children (2.2) on average than those who were healthy (2.6), according to a report published in the forthcoming issue of The Lancet.  In addition, 29 per cent of those with cancer had never breastfed, while the rate among those who were healthy was 21 per cent. Of those women who did breastfeed their children, the women with breast cancer did so for 10 months or less, compared with healthy women who breastfed for around 16 months. “The longer women breastfeed, the more they are protected against breast cancer,” the authors concluded.  To read Sunday Times coverage see: https://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,4733702%255E401,00.html