October has been coloured pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. Tree-trunks wrapped in pink cloth, walkathons and marathons, and ‘Pink Tea Parties’ to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. Staff (men included) are wearing pink to work. I’m sporting a pink ribbon. Magazines are carrying heart-warming stories about breast cancer survivors. Education and awareness is key. But besides encouraging women to give themselves regular breast examinations and to go for mammograms, getting to the heart of where cancer is coming from, is perhaps more important.
Breasts and periods:
The link between breasts and periods is by way of a hormone called oestrogen. Oestrogen is an essential ingredient of our femininity.
• Oestrogen boosts our mood and makes us feel sexy
• It keeps skin plump and moist (delaying wrinkles)
• Retains natural hair colour and buoyancy (noticed how hair sometimes becomes curly after puberty?) and shine!
• Oestrogen gives us energy, it helps us get things done!
During the first half of every menstrual cycle, oestrogen is made in the ovary by the ova (eggs) in preparation for ovulation (the release of the egg) and consequent fertilisation.
Ovulation happens about mid-cycle (a cycle is calculated from the first day of one period to the first day of the next period). Besides preparing the womb and cervix (mouth of the womb) for fertilisation, oestrogen prepares certain ‘target cells’ in the breast for breastfeeding – namely the breast ducts.
As helpful as oestrogen is, it has some drawbacks. Because this hormone stimulates cells to multiply it is called carcinogenic – in other words, ‘cancer-causing’. Luckily the oestrogen-ovulation-peak only lasts about 5 days of the menstrual cycle, and oestrogen effects are balanced by another hormone, progesterone, that’s produced after ovulation. This ‘balancing act’ only occurs with natural menstrual cycles (i.e. not ‘pill’ cycles).
During pregnancy, oestrogen and progesterone are made by the placenta (not the ovaries) and their task is to maintain the pregnancy and prepare the woman’s body for the birth, and breastfeeding. By the sixth month, breast ducts (channels) and alveoli (these look like bunches of grapes where the milk is made) are fully developed, and this is where colostrum comes from.
This also means that by this stage of your pregnancy, your breasts have nearly reached the final stages of development (this is completed with breastfeeding – ideally for a year). After weaning, when your menstrual cycles return to normal, breast tissue will no longer be ‘oestrogen sensitive’ because they’re fully matured – thus sparing them the carcinogenic effects of oestrogen.
In this way, pregnancy and breastfeeding helps to protect a women’s breasts from cancer.
Please note that there are many types of breast cancer – pregnancy and breastfeeding is not a guarantee that you will not get breast cancer. It is only one of the many protective mechanisms.
