Women deserve the truth
Media Release Festival of Light Australia 29 August 2006
"Young women have the right to know about possible risks before they make decisions about child bearing, the contraceptive pill and abortion," said Festival of Light Queensland state officer Geoffrey Bullock. He said Courier-Mail columnist Paul Syvret's vindictive attack on Mrs Babette Francis of Endeavour Forum and the Queensland Festival of Light August newsletter (C-M, 29/8/06, p 27) was ill-informed.
"Paul Syvret's article ignored well-established facts which are relevant to the upsurge in breast cancer cases in the Toowong ABC studios," Mr Bullock said. "Far from attacking ABC women who have become breast cancer victims, we are concerned for them - and for other women who are not being warned about risks associated with different reproductive choices.
"The fact is that while breast cancer cases in men have remained stable over the last four decades, breast cancer in women has nearly doubled. Breast cancer is most common among women from affluent areas. In upper class San Francisco suburbs, one in seven women will contract breast cancer during their life time. The highest rates of breast cancer in Australia are in the ACT - the lowest are in the Northern Territory.
"Breast cancer specialists have known for years that women with no children, or women who delay child-bearing until after 30, are at increased risk - like Kylie Minogue, or nuns.
"The contraceptive pill, if taken for a long time (especially during teen years) is also a risk factor. On 25 July last year the World Health Organisation issued a media release to say that the pill's hormones - synthetic forms of oestrogen and progesterone - are carcinogens linked with breast, liver and cervical cancers.
"For the same reason, hormone replacement therapy for post-menopausal women is a cancer risk if taken for more than five years. Early menstruation or late menopause are also risks, because more menstrual cycles mean higher lifetime exposure to oestrogen. These facts are well-established," Mr Bullock said.
"Oestrogen is also the reason why women who abort their first pregnancy are at increased risk of breast cancer. During the first three months of a normal pregnancy, oestrogen levels rise by 2000%, making the breasts grow bigger. However immature breast lobules are especially vulnerable to cancer - unlike late in the pregnancy when the lobules mature, ready for lactation, and become cancer-resistant.
"If a woman aborts her first pregnancy, the breast-maturing process cannot occur. She is left with an increased number of breast lobules in a form which is vulnerable to cancer. The cancer may take up to 20 years to become a detectable lump.
"Australian breast cancer rates began to increase markedly in the mid to late 1980s, two decades after delayed child-bearing, abortion and contraceptive pill use became much more common.
"Some breast cancer risks - like the inherited BRCA genes - cannot be avoided. If a woman has a family history of breast cancer, her best protection is to have children early and to breast feed them.
"The cluster of breast cancer cases among female ABC employees in Toowong may be due to problems in their building, but is more likely to be associated with an increased number of women with risk factors for this illness," Mr Bullock said. "The good news is that new treatment for breast cancer means fewer women are dying from it, especially if it is detected early.
"If women know they are at increased risk, they are more likely to have mammograms and to check for lumps. Knowledge is power - and all women deserve to know," Mr Bullock said.
For more information, contact:
Mrs Babette Francis, B Sc (Hons) - (03) 9822 3069
or Geoffrey Bullock, (07) 4687 7717; mobile 0427 645 133
Festival of Light Australia in Queensland
GPO Box 1483
BRISBANE QLD 4001