Estrogen and Breast Cancer

There are many factors that contribute to the development of cancer, but one particularly important factor for women is hormone imbalance. Specially progesterone and estrogen imbalance that can cause several types of sex organ cancers (breast, uterine and ovarian cancer). Estrogen and progesterone imbalances can also play a role in the development of cancer for men, especially prostate cancer. But for woman, hormone imbalance can be a much bigger cancer factor than for man because of the woman's natural life cycle that can throw her into imbalance.

In general, a woman's progesterone production will begin to decrease 10 to 15 years before menopause begins, then will continue to drop even lower for several years afterward. And her estrogen levels, on the other hand, will not decrease much during her premenopausal years. Only once she experience menopause that her estrogen level decreases a significant amount. However, the estrogen level is still higher than the progesterone.



When women develop an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone, it is almost always the estrogen levels that are too high and the progesterone are too low. It very rarely happens the other way. During and after the woman's menopausal years, she may suffer from low estrogen symptoms, such as hot flashes, depression, foggy thinking, dry skin, vaginal dryness, low sex drive and insomnia. But even the estrogen level being low, it is still higher then progesterone.

And what is the problem with estrogen levels being higher than progesterone?

Estrogen tend to stimulate cell growth, which can increase the risk for cancer . This cancer promoting factor of estrogen is already widely accepted by the medical community and is the reason most doctors will refuse to prescribe estrogen for menopausal symptoms to a woman who has cancer.
But how exactly does estrogen promote cancerous cell growth? It does this by activating an cancer-stimulating gene, in cells. The cancer-stimulating gene that responds to estrogen is called "Bcl-2". Progesterone, on the other hand, down regulates this very same Bcl-2 gene and up regulates a tumor-suppressing gene, "p-53", in the same cells. When p53 is activated, it slows cell reproduction and restores a programmed cell death (apoptosis). Thus, estrogen tends to stimulate uncontrolled cell growth by activating the Bcl-2 gene and progesterone tend to stop uncontrolled cell growth by activating the p53 gene. - By the way, there are healthy women today being tested for the Bcl-2 gene and if they get a positive result for the gene, some women decide to do "preventive" mastectomies to remove their breasts in order to prevent breast cancer. In my opinion, this is a very invasive and extreme way to prevent a type of cancer. These genetic causes only predispose some women to breast cancer, they don't guarantee that cancer will develop!!!

So now, you've learn that high levels of estrogen can stimulate the development of breast and other sex organ cancers especially in woman.

Source: Outsmart Your Cancer by Tanya Harter Pierce