The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 8 December 2011 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61746-7Cite or Link Using DOI The plight of nuns: hazards of nulliparity Original TextKara Britt a, Roger Short b Catholic nuns are committed to leading a celibate, spiritual life in a monastery or convent. In 1713, Italian physician Bernadino Ramazzini1 noted that nuns had an extremely high incidence of that "accursed pest", breast cancer. Today, the world's 94,790 nuns still pay a terrible price for their chastity because they have a greatly increased risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers: the hazards of their nulliparity. Fraumeni and colleagues2 compiled data for...