Breast Cancer and Natural Progesterone

Breast cancer is a major health issue. It is the most common cancer-related cause of death in women in Australia. One in twelve Australian women will develop the disease and each year many women die from it.

World-wide about 1,670,000 women have breast cancer. And in North America, a woman dies of breast cancer every 12 minutes!

Your risk of surviving malignant breast cancer is just about the same as it was 50 years ago, when the only treatment was mastectomy; about one in three. In other words, despite billions of dollars in research and hugely expensive and risky treatments, the conventional medical approach to breast cancer isn’t working, and talk of prevention is virtually nonexistent.

The incidence of breast cancer is steadily rising and the numbers are appalling. Between 1973-1998 the incidence of breast cancer rose by over 40%.

Yet despite being the leading cause of death among middle-aged women in the USA, only 5% of the National Cancer Institute’s budget is allocated to research and cancer prevention.

Women who are in their mid-thirties to mid-forties (premenopausal) have the highest escalating risk of breast cancer. In other words, your risk of having breast cancer increases the most steeply in these years. After menopause, however, your estrogen levels drop significantly and so, too, does your risk of breast cancer.

The fat in your breast tissue can also be more dangerous at age 60 than at age 20 because you’ve had more time to accumulate and retain toxins within the fact tissues of the breast.

However, in some countries the risk of breast cancer after menopause is very low, possibly attributed to less exposure to environmental estrogens and HRT, or diet, or a more active life.

Premenopausal women start to have cycles in which they don’t ovulate, or in which they ovulate but don’t produce adequate amounts of the hormone progesterone. They still make the hormone estrogen and bleed each month, but because their body does not manufacture enough progesterone, estrogen goes ‘unopposed’.

Progesterone deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of cancer, while normal levels of progesterone in the body actually help protect you against some forms of cancer.

Dr. David Zava, Ph.D., Hormone expert and Co-Author, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer" writes:

"Most oncologists and general practioners that work with natural progesterone find that primary breast cancer, and breast cancer recurrences are less frequent in women using topical progesterone, but it does happen. My experience, in reviewing pathology reports from women who have developed breast cancer while using topical progesterone, is that they usually have tumors that do not contain progesterone receptors, or the receptors are very low."

Of course, women with breast cancer need to be supported in demanding their right to be fully informed about the treatments they receive, and to be able to refuse treatment if they - through education or intuition - feel it’s wrong for them, without being "disowned" by the medical system.