Study Suggests Hot Flashes in Menopause May Reduce Risk of 2 Types of Breast Cancer
By Brenda Goodman
WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD Jan. 28, 2010 -- A new study shows that having symptoms such as hot flashes during menopause appears to be tied to a lower risk of the most common kinds of breast cancer.
“There’s good news about hot flashes,” says Susan Love, MD, a breast cancer expert and author of Dr. Susan Love’s Menopause and Hormone Book.
Researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle interviewed more than 1,000 women with one of three kinds of breast cancer and compared them to nearly 500 randomly selected women of similar ages with no history of breast cancer.
Participants were asked whether they ever experienced menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, sweating or night sweats, vaginal dryness, bladder problems, irregular or heavy menstrual bleeding, depression, anxiety, insomnia, or emotional distress.
With regard to hot flashes, women were asked how often they occurred, how long they typically lasted, and for how many total weeks or months they had them.
Compared to women who reported never having menopausal symptoms, those who had experienced symptoms had half the risk of invasive ductal carcinoma or invasive lobular carcinoma, two of the most common types of breast cancer.
And the more frequent or severe the hot flashes were, the lower their risk appeared to be.
Those associations remained even after researchers took into account other things that are known to influence breast cancer risk, such as the use of hormone replacement therapy, age at menopause, and body weight.
The study is published in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Slideshow: 12 Supplements for Menopause Symptoms
Hot Flashes and Breast Cancer
“This is the first study to ever look at this association,” says study researcher Christopher I. Li, MD, PhD, a breast cancer epidemiologist in the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division.
Li stresses, however, that his study was not designed to show cause and effect, and that the connection between menopausal symptoms and breast cancer is still largely a mystery.
“We don’t know a whole lot about all the biology that’s at work here,” he says.
In particular, scientists don’t know what causes hot flashes, only that they appear to be linked to lower levels of the hormone estrogen.
Breast cancer, in turn, has been linked to higher levels of estrogen, so it may be that hot flashes are acting as a marker for the intensity of hormonal changes in the body, Li says.
Indeed, a previous study showed that women who experienced hot flashes several times a day had 35% to 45% lower estrogen levels compared with women who did not experience hot flashes or who only experienced them infrequently.
I don't get the hot flashes much... but it seems to be more a factor of when I eat well, I don't get them hardly at all. When I eat junk food and fast food, I have them much more often.
I can't think that it should be good for me to eat more junk and fast food, in order to increase my hot flash frequency, LOL!
Ha! Some good about hot flashes?!! Well if this is true I must be at very low risk! I hope so as I have suffered enough with the hot flashes! And I will be 68 years old next month! They are better now but only because I take both Estroven and iCool. The iCool has helped the most. I'm glad to hear there is something good about them.
Hi, I have experienced all the above, heavy heavy periods in my 40s, plenty of hot flashes during/after menopause etc etc. when I was reading up on things, I read that stored hormones are in our fat cells. I wondered at the time, if hot flashes are the body's way of trying to access some of those hormones we are not producing. I believe our bodies are wiser than anyone knows, and there is probably a reason for widespread phenomena. Just my thoughts
Interesting: I had one Fall (2006) of terrible, terrible hot flashes that actually caused a yeast rash around my neck! Those flashes were sooooo painful and Iworked in a business that was crazy-busy Fall to Spring. Then they went away! By August I had my last monthly. I had occasional VERY heavy monthlies during the late 90s and up to 2005 (probably due to endometriosis or ovarian cysts that I was unaware of). Last Spring I had a lump removed-it was benign...
If this study is true my risk factor should be minus 100. I went through menopause in my early 40's and 13 years later I still have hot flashes and night sweats.
LOL their reputation with me is certainly flashy! Even with taking TWO supplements day and being 76 I still have them although normally they are much easier than they used to be. But every now and then (like a cycle?) I have a spell when they are worse. Right now I am in one of those times. Between the hot flashes and having to get up to pee, I don't get much sleep!
Hi, I have experienced all the above, heavy heavy periods in my 40s, plenty of hot flashes during/after menopause etc etc. when I was reading up on things, I read that stored hormones are in our fat cells. I wondered at the time, if hot flashes are the body's way of trying to access some of those hormones we are not producing. I believe our bodies are wiser than anyone knows, and there is probably a reason for widespread phenomena. Just my thoughts
This is interesting. Esp since when I lost weight about 6 years ago, I got down to 145. I was on hormones at the time but still had some minor hot flashes esp at night. When I lost this weight, they went away! That's why I went off the hormones (plus knew they could cause other health problems). They got much much worse then! And over a period of ten months, I gained back that weight. But I'm wondering if I would lose weight again, if they might go away away or at least lessen again.
Thank Goodness for Hot Flashes?
