Specimen from malignant pleural effusion in metastatic breast cancer

Estrogen, that amazing female hormone, is one of the things that makes us uniquely and beautifully women. Unfortunately, if you are an older woman who is overweight, that very estrogen circulating in your body can increase your risk for breast cancer. A study conducted by Women Veterans’ Comprehensive Health Center at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center looked at more than 287,000 post-menopausal women and came to the conclusion that a woman’s weight is directly related to her risk for breast cancer.

How Weight Affects Estrogen

Of the older women surveyed in this study, the ones who were considered overweight had a 10-35% increased risk of breast cancer than their thinner counterparts, and the risk just kept climbing related to the woman’s weight. The reason is that women who are above a healthy weight have more estrogen circulating in their bodies than women at a healthy weight, and these extra hormones are helping to promote tumor growth.

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