BACKGROUND Findings from observational studies suggest an inverse association between lactation and premenopausal breast cancer risk, but results are inconsistent, and data from large prospective cohort studies are lacking. METHODS We used information from 60,075 parous women participating in the prospective cohort study of the Nurses' Health Study II from 1997 to 2005. Our primary outcome wa...

BACKGROUND Autoantibodies are of growing interest in cancer research as potential biomarkers; yet, the determinants of autoimmunity are not well understood. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) are common in the general population and are more prevalent in women and older adults. Here, we examined the relationship of ANA with reproductive and hormonal factors in a representative sample of U.S. women. ...

BACKGROUND Overweight and obese women are known to be at increased risk of caesarean birth. This study estimates the contribution of prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) to caesarean births in Canada. METHODS We analyzed data from women in the Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey who had a singleton term live birth in 2005-2006. Adjusted odds ratios for caesar...

The authors conducted a case-control study in Mexico City between September 1990 and December 1992 to determine whether a dose-response relation could be observed between duration of lactation and the risk of breast cancer. Cases, women aged 20-75 years, were identified through six hospitals in Mexico City (n = 349) and were interviewed to obtain data on risk factors for breast cancer, includin...

BACKGROUND Anaemia is arguably the biggest female health problems in developing countries. The world is still to fully fathom the extent and gravity of the problem. This problem aggravates particularly during and after pregnancies due to increased nutritional demands and inadequate iron supply and is therefore more widespread in parous segments of female population. Objective of this study was ...

BACKGROUND Recent studies suggest that lactation has long-term effects on risk for cardiovascular disease in women, but the effects on cardiovascular mortality are less well known. METHOD In a Norwegian population-based prospective cohort study, we studied the association of lifetime duration of lactation with cardiovascular mortality in 21,889 women aged 30 to 85 years who attended the secon...

The authors conducted a population-based case-control study of 410 women residing in three counties in western Washington State who were aged 18-64 years when diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in 1988-1994 and 574 controls to assess the effects of pregnancy history and other aspects of reproductive life on risk of this disease. Among women aged 45-64, the authors observed no associations ...

Never or curtailed lactation has been associated with an increased risk for incident hypertension, but the effect of exclusive breastfeeding is unknown. The authors conducted an observational cohort study of 55,636 parous women in the US Nurses' Health Study II. From 1991 to 2005, participants reported 8,861 cases of incident hypertension during 660,880 person-years of follow-up. Never or curta...