E-mail Subscription Virginia Hopkin's Watch

A Free e-mail newsletter from Virginia Hopkins to keep you up-to-date on what's happening with hormone replacement research, nutrition in the news, and much more!

E-mail address

Tell A Friend Subscribe Print Friendly

Breast Cancer Research for Your Doubting Doctor


A BEAUTIFUL PAPER ON BREAST CANCER
This is the article to take to your doubting doctor.

It’s pretty hard to get goose bumps reading a scientific review article, but as I was reading “Pregnancy, progesterone and progestins in relation to breast cancer risk,” by a group of Italians led by Carlo Campagnoli, my hair stood on end. Here, in one eloquently worded, organized and argued paper was the same basic argument that Dr. Lee, Dr. Zava and myself made our 2002 book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Breast Cancer about why progesterone is protective against breast cancer and progestins cause it. However, since the article was written four years after our book, it cited even more good research to prove the point.

If you’re facing a doctor who doesn’t understand the relationship between progesterone, estrogen, progestins and breast cancer, suggest that he or she read this paper.

What You Need to Know about Progesterone and Breast Cancer

Here are some of the major points made by the authors:

  • It’s the synthetic progestins that contribute to causing breast cancer—not progesterone.

  • Even one full-term pregnancy is remarkably protective against breast cancer, probably because progesterone and other pregnancy hormones cause permanent changes in breast tissue that are protective, and because progesterone levels are very high in the last few weeks of a full-term pregnancy.

  • Women with the highest progesterone levels, and the highest progesterone/estradiol levels during pregnancy, have the lowest risk of breast cancer.

  • It’s estrogen, not progesterone, that stimulates proliferation of breast cells.

  • They cite five studies showing that menstruating women with the lowest mid-cycle progesterone levels have the highest risk of breast cancer.

  • They cite the French studies (see above) and note: “It is important to realize that recent findings relating to the use of natural progesterone, in sharp contrast to those referring to the use of progestins, are reassuring. …It is probable that the increase in BC risk found in other studies with HRT is related to the fact that synthetic progestins, rather than progesterone, were used.”

  • Insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia and high blood glucose (caused by being overweight, eating too much sugar and refined carbs, not exercising, stress and not enough sleep) are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

 

Campagnoli C, Abba C, Ambroggio S, Peris C, Pregnancy, progesterone and progestins in relation to breast cancer risk. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol, 2005 Dec;97(5):441-50.