Improved nutrition leads to increased exposure over a lifetime to estrogens. We are living a very different lifestyle than that in which our bodies developed. Dr. Malcolm Pike, head of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, has even suggested artificially adjusting women's hormone levels from puberty to death, with occasional time-outs for childbirth, as a preventive measure in the fight against breast and ovarian cancers. In fact, women benefit from the estrogen in their bodies. But too much of a good thing can wreak havoc with the rest of our physiological system.
Estrogens significantly increase the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers.
Most months in modern America, there is no pregnancy and the newly divided cells die. The next month, the whole cycle begins again. While most cellular damage can be repaired quickly by the body, if a damaged cell is able to divide before repair, a cancer is begun. Once they have completely matured, just one pregnancy's worth, they are forever more resistant to damage that could lead to cancer development. Of all women under the age of 75, only 1 out of 40 is expected to die from breast cancer.