Women spend most of their lives without pregnancy, and when they’re pregnant, it’s usually 1-2 years of their whole life.
Shouldn’t it be not that important when it comes to elevated risk of reproductive cancers (breast, uterine, ovarian etc) if the woman is nullipar?
What’s the explanation?
In: Biology
sorry are you asking why getting a massive dose of exotic body changing hormones that cause a whole hoste of physical effects including increased breast size, growing extra temporary organs in the womb (placenta) and generally putting high stress on all reproductive organs changes risk of cancer in the effected areas?
To answer your question we would need a solid understanding of all the mechanisms giving rise to cancer in those areas and how pregnancy alters or pauses those mechanisms.
Philosophically, I would say that the biological purpose of those parts is the conceiving, bearing and nourishing of young. It shouldn’t be surprising that using parts in accordance with their purpose (what they were designed/selected for) is going to produce better health outcomes for those parts than not doing so, barring accidents of course. None of this is any reflection on the direct effects on the overall health of the woman’s body and mind from pregnancy, childbirth and nursing, let alone the broader social and economic consequences (which feed indirectly into health effects) to her and her family either way.
It’s a relative risk difference. We can’t say for sure how many ovulation cycles are correlated with getting reproductive cancer but we know that things that decrease the # of ovulation (late menarche, early menopause, pregnancy, etc) are protective. So it’s just speaking in relative terms.
Because high estrogen levels increase the risk for reproductive cancers. The more menstrual cycles a woman has, the higher her risk of breast cancer. So if a woman has an early menarche and a late menopause, she is at higher risk. If she practices extended breastfeeding and does not menstruate for a year and a half after giving birth, that reduces her risk of breast cancer. Estrogen levels are higher when a woman is cycling, and estrogen has a stimulating and proliferative effect on reproductive tissue. Women who are overweight generally have higher levels of circulating estrogen. This makes them at higher risk for endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial cancer and breast cancer. Female children who are overweight are more likely to have an early menarche due to their higher levels of circulating estrogen.
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