Jan 26, 2011 13:57 GMT  ·  By
Indeed, it seems that women who have very frequent and intense hot flushes, may have 50% lower risks of developing the most common forms of breast cancer, than postmenopausal women who never experienced these symptoms.
   Indeed, it seems that women who have very frequent and intense hot flushes, may have 50% lower risks of developing the most common forms of breast cancer, than postmenopausal women who never experienced these symptoms.

Hot flushes are among the menopause symptoms that women hate the most and still, having them could be a very good sign, since a new study conducted by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center researchers concluded that having menopause symptoms reduces breast cancer risks by half.

Indeed, it seems that women who have very frequent and intense hot flushes, may have 50% lower risks of developing the most common forms of breast cancer, than postmenopausal women who never experienced these symptoms.

For their study, senior author Christopher I. Li, MD, PhD, a breast cancer epidemiologist in the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, and his colleagues, interviewed 1,437 postmenopausal women from Seattle, out of whom 988 had been previously diagnosed with breast cancer and 449 of whom had not, representing the comparison group.

Information was gathered about perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms, going from hot flushes, night sweats and insomnia, to physical problems, depression and anxiety.

Li said that “while menopausal symptoms can certainly have a negative impact on quality of life, our study suggests that there may be a silver lining if the reduction in breast cancer risk is confirmed in future studies.

“If these findings are confirmed, they have the potential to improve our understanding of the causes of breast cancer and improve approaches to preventing this disease.”

As previously said, the protective effect seems to increase along with the number and severity of menopausal symptoms.

“In particular we found that women who experienced more intense hot flushes – the kind that woke them up at night – had a particularly low risk of breast cancer,” Li said.

The researchers believe that there is a link between menopausal discomfort and decreased breast cancer risk, because of the important role that estrogen and progesterone play in the development of most breast cancers.

A reduction in these hormones caused by a gradual cessation of ovarian function can have a very strong impact on the frequency and severity of menopausal symptoms, explained the researcher.

“Since menopausal symptoms occur as hormone levels fluctuate and drop, we hypothesized that women who experienced symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats – particularly frequent and severe symptoms – might have a lower risk of breast cancer due to decreased estrogen levels,” he added.

The study results confirmed this theory, with a 40% to 60% reduction in the risk of invasive ductal and invasive lobular carcinoma among women who experienced hot flushes and other symptoms.

These two types of carcinoma are the most common types of breast cancer.

The connection between the menopausal symptoms and breast cancer did not change even after accounting for other factors, like obesity or the use of hormone replacement therapy.

The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute, and the results are available online ahead of the February print issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.