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Does Abortion increase your risk of Breast Cancer?
by Dr. Joel Brind, Ph.D.
Abortion Disrupts Hormonal Balance
Estrogen is the hormone that turns a girl's body into a woman's body at puberty. Actually, there is a whole class of similar steroids, estrogens, which can stimulate the growth of the breasts and other female tissues. The most abundant and important estrogen secreted by a woman's ovaries is called estradiol.
After puberty, the levels of estradiol rise and fall twice with each menstrual cycle. Under the influence of the pituitary gland's follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), new, egg-containing follicles develop in the ovaries during the first half of the menstrual cycle. The follicular, estradiol-secreting cells surrounding the eggs proliferate, and so the ovaries secrete ever larger quantities of estradiol, reaching a peak about one day before ovulation. This pre-ovulatory peak is the highest blood level of estradiol a woman ever normally experiences in the non-pregnant state. It stimulates her pituitary gland to secrete another hormone, luteinizing hormone (LH), which actually triggers ovulation.
According to 27 out of 31 studies, even one abortion increases the risk of getting breast cancer later in life. Dr. Joel Brind, an endocrinology specialist, who has done a great deal of research on this issue and has compiled the results of the numerous studies, explains below the science behind the link. His reports reveal an increased breast cancer risk of 50% if an abortion is performed before the first live birth. If multiple abortions are performed the risk can increase up to 100%. He also explains how spontaneous miscarriages do not produce the same result.
After ovulation, the follicle which has expelled the egg becomes filled with another kind of cell called a luteal cell. These luteal cells proliferate under the influence of pituitary LH, thus secreting ever larger quantities of both estradiol and the pregnancy hormone progesterone, from which estradiol is made.
Since pituitary secretion of LH falls off quite sharply after ovulation, the corpus luteum (as the former follicle is now called) begins to regress, unless fertilization of the egg (conception) takes place. If conception has occurred, the embryo begins almost immediately-to secrete another chemical messenger which acts like LH to "rescue" the corpus luteum.
If rescued, the corpus luteum proceeds to generate enormous concentrations of progesterone and estradiol. By 7 to 8 weeks gestation, a pregnant woman's blood already contains six times more estradiol than it did at the time of conception, more than twice the highest level attained in the non-pregnant state.
Cancer Cells Run Amok
How estradiol, or estrogens in general, relate to breast cancer risk, has to do with their role in the growth of breast tissue. It is estradiol which makes the breasts grow to a mature size at puberty, and which makes them grow again during pregnancy.The cells in the breast which are responsive to estradiol are those which are primitive, or undifferentiated. Once terminally differentiated into milk-producing cells,breast cells can no longer be stimulated to reproduce.
It is the undifferentiated cells which can give rise to cancerous tumors later in life. If a woman therefore has gone through some weeks of a normal
pregnancy, and then aborts that pregnancy, she is left with more of these cancer-vulnerable cells than she had in her breasts before she was pregnant. In addition, any abnormal, potentially cancer-forming cells already in her breasts (present to some extent in all people) have also been stimulated to multiply All this translates into a statistically greater probability that a cancerous tumor may eventually arise. In fact most risk factors for breast cancer are attributable to overexposure to some form of estrogen.
In contrast, a full term pregnancy results in full differentiation of the breast tissue for the purpose of milk production,
which
leaves
fewer cancer-vulnerable cells in the breasts than were there before the pregnancy began. This translates into the well known breast cancer risk lowering
effect of a full term pregnancy...
Most miscarriages occur in the first trimester, and over 90% of these are characterized by abnormally low maternal estradiol levels (quantities that do not exceed non-pregnant levels). One team of Swiss obstetricians, as far back as 1976, was actually able to predict miscarriages with 92% accuracy with just a single measurement of estradiol. Theoretically, this makes perfect sense: the very reason for an early miscarriage is an inadequate supply of progesterone from which estradiol is made.
However, there is reason to believe that pregnancies which survive the first trimester (and they couldn't survive without adequately high progesterone levels, which are paralleled by estradiol) are likely to raise breast cancer risk, if they go on to miscarry due to physical trauma or anatomic defect. Since most miscarriages do occur in the first trimester, miscarriages generally have been found not to increase the risk of breast cancer. Remember: reproductive rights are meaningless without the right of women to know all the consequences of the choices they may make.
For this complete article and its documentation, plus Dr. Brind's responses to those who deny the link, check out www.humanlife.org/breast cancer.
Abortion & Breast Cancer