Canada Pharmacy Online Links Breast Cancer with Fertility Treatments

Whether or not a woman becomes pregnant while on fertility drugs may affect her odds for breast cancer later on. This study is regardless of the contraception they have taken like generic Yasmin birth control pills. 

The researchers, led by Chunyuan Fei, at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, examined women diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 50, as well as their sisters who did not have the disease, over the course of two years. 

"Our data suggest that exposure to a stimulated pregnancy is enough to undo the reduction in [breast cancer] risk associated with a history of exposure to ovulation-stimulating drugs," the authors wrote. 

"It is hard to draw a conclusion as to whether or not treatment for infertility increases the risk of breast cancer from this study," said Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She said these types of cases-vs.-control group studies are somewhat unreliable, and she pointed out that while some prior studies looking at fertility drugs and breast cancer have found a link, others have not. 

"One of the ways to reach a better conclusion would be the creation of a national data bank where information on women undergoing treatment is entered and updated as time progresses," Bernik said. "This is an important question to answer, and better methods of obtaining the information need to be established." 

For his part, Dr. Paul Tartter, a breast surgeon at St. Luke's & Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City, noted that "previous studies have not found an increased risk [of breast cancer for women on fertility treatment]. Only one previous study noted a slightly increased risk, which was not statistically significant." A different study is to be conducted on how birth control methods affect fertility drugs’ possibility of increasing breast cancer risks. To buy Yasmin pills has greatly shown promising results but may double the threat of breast cancer if one decides to take fertility meds later on. 

"The control group for these women should be women of the same age who became pregnant without IVF -- they did not use the correct control group. Using the patients' sisters is irrelevant," Tartter explained. Furthermore, "the cases had significantly younger age at menarche [onset of menstruation] and older age at first birth, both well-known risk factors for breast cancer. Nowhere in this study did they control for these differences." 

The primary risk factors for breast cancer are female sex, age, lack of childbearing or breastfeeding, higher hormone levels, race, economic status and dietary iodine deficiency. 

Most cases of breast cancer cannot be prevented through any action on the part of the affected person. The World Cancer Research Fund estimated that 38% of breast cancer cases in the US are preventable through reducing alcohol intake, increasing physical activity levels and maintaining a healthy weight. It also estimated that 42% of breast cancer cases in the UK could be prevented in this way, as well as 28% in Brazil and 20% in China. 

Smoking tobacco may increase the risk of breast cancer with the greater the amount of smoking and the earlier in life smoking begins the higher the risk.