Lower breast cancer risk linked to menstruation, doctor says

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta

Getting married and giving birth at an early age may reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, a doctor says.

Oncologist and physician Ang Peng Tiam said on Saturday that women who married and had children early had a much lower risk of developing breast cancer than women who did not get married or have children.

"This is because we have found the low risk of breast cancer is related to the number of uninterrupted menstrual cycles," Ang told The Jakarta Post.

For example, a woman who started having her period at the age of 12 and married at 18 and became pregnant would have a low risk, which is "equal to the number of uninterrupted menstrual cycles she has, or 12 times 6 years," said Ang of Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Medical Center.

In comparison, he said, a woman who started her period at 10 years of age, but did not marry or have children until 30, would have a risk factor of 200 in developing breast cancer.

"Thus, one way to prevent the development of breast cancer is to urge women to marry and have children at an early age," he said.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that around 8 to 9 percent of women in the world have breast cancer, but this figure is increasing with 7 million new cases emerging every year.

WHO data further revealed that each year, 700,000 women die from breast cancer.

While Indonesia has no official data available, breast cancer is the second greatest cause of death among females, after cervical cancer.

According to the Dharmais Cancer Hospital in Jakarta, the annual incidence of breast cancer is 100 for every 100,000 women.

Ang said the evidence proved that one could never underestimate the disease, and that marrying and having children early might not necessarily guarantee that the risk would diminish.

Early detection, such as having annual mammograms and pap smear tests every year, he said, was the best prevention.

"The truth is, many cancers are multifactoral and not preventable. You can reduce the risk, but you cannot eliminate it," he said.

He said the message he wanted to convey was to encourage people to take control of their own health.

"At the end of the day, each individual woman must take it upon herself to modify her lifestyle and improve her cancer risk, because if you don't take responsibility for your own health, then there's very little we can do in terms of controlling cancer," said Ang.