Posted on 07/29/2009 12:32:40 PM PDT by markomalley
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Jul 29, 2009 / 12:14 am (CNA).- A Turkish researcher has reported a statistically significant 66 percent increase in breast cancer risk among women who have had an abortion.
Dr. Vahit Ozmen and his colleagues at the Istanbul Medical Faculty and Magee-Women's hospital conducted a retrospective study in breast cancer risk factors which discovered the connection. Their study was published in the World Journal of Surgical Oncology, an open access, peer reviewed online medical journal.
The researchers also reviewed the contemporary literature on the possible abortion-breast cancer link, saying “the majority of the studies reported that induced abortion was associated with increased breast cancer risk.”
Their study also found significantly decreased breast cancer risks for women who use oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. According to the Poughkeepsie, New York-based Breast Cancer Prevention Institute (BCPI), this contradicts findings of the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Cancer Institute and “what has been almost universally observed around the world.”
BCPI director Joel Brind, a professor of endocrinology at Baruch College at City University of New York, said the findings call into question the National Cancer Institute’s 2003 declaration that it was “established” that there was no connection between abortion and breast cancer.
In an analysis of the study Brind said the researchers probably underestimated the breast cancer risk associated with abortion because of “selection bias,” in that a disproportionate number of women with modern lifestyles, including abortions, were likely overrepresented among the controls. If there is indeed a link between abortion and breast cancer, their cancer rates would have been elevated but nonetheless classified as normal.
He suggested these modern women would also be more likely to take contraceptives and hormonal therapies, but also would live healthier lifestyles. The “protective effects” of their modern lifestyles would then correlate with lower cancer rates.
The new study, Brind said, is “honest research” that cracks the “wall of denial erected by our increasingly nonsensical and bizarre political institutions.”
The conclusion:
These findings suggest that age and induced abortion were found to be significantly associated with increased breast cancer risk whereas oral contraceptive use was observed to be associated with decreased breast cancer risk among Turkish women in Istanbul.
ping
I can see the correlation, not the causation - an abortion abruptly messes up the hormonal balance, unlike childbirth or natural miscarriage? Is that it?
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Yes. There are changes that occur in breast tissue that are completed when the woman gives birth to a mostly full term baby. Abortion, or even miscarriage, prevents the changes from being completed and that is what researchers figure is behind the increase in breast cancer.
So, in effect, it can be the cause. it’s more than just correlation.
I understand that that is a concern for women who go on birth control before they have their first full-term pregnancy.
Not entirely moot. See, if doctors have to go to court to protect their conscience rights, they can bring up this study as evidence that abortion is not a good idea from a medical POV. Not only are they acting according to conscience, they’re acting with the best interests of their patients at heart.
I hope that you are right. I am fearful, I confess.
Great... I’ve had two miscarriages. Guess I’m in a heap of doo doo.
Only if they happened before your first full term pregnancy. once you have one full term pregnancy, those changes are completed properly and miscarriages after that don’t have the same effect.
Breastfeeding can help, too. It’s been shown to be protective against breast cancer.
Don’t sit in the heap of doo doo.
My sister in law had a lot of miscarriages until my brother started wearing boxer shorts . . . then she got pregnant and carried to term. He went back to briefs after she got pregnant, though.
When there’s a spontaneous abortion, there’s a chemical or physical reason for it, even if the doctors can’t pin it down. When everything is right for a baby to come to term, the baby will come to term.
Pray and Trust and Believe . . . In the Fullness of Time, God . . . .
Peace and Blessings.
My first preg was a healthy full term baby. The two babies conc’d after both miscarried, then the fourth went full term. I am soooo blessed to have my two. I wish and pray for more. I’m 42 and still hoping.
Thank you for your kind and informative words.
I think you probably still have time.
I wanted a large family but got a late start and after 3 c-sections, just couldn’t bring myself to face another one.
I hope it works out for you.
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