trogen levels over an extended time to the risk of breast cancer. This what was thought until researchers at the "New England Journal of Medicine" proposed a study. Bone mass is a cumulative effect of estrogen on bones scientists say, and so the study focused on the more easily observed density and mass of bone tissue in women. Four levels were studied, and the research was tallied. The risk for getting cancer in the lowest stage of bone mass was about 2%, and then 2.6, 2.7, and 7.0 in the second, third, and fourth levels of higher mass respectively. This research lent itself to the assumption that cumulative exposure to estrogen might play a part in breast cancer (Fitzgerald et al, 1996).Other hormonal factors have been viewed as potential breast-cancer-causing agents. Birth control pills are thought by some to lead to breast cancer. Early birth control pills used much more estrogen and progesterone than do today's pills. Lots of contradictory results were found in research on "the pill" because women who had been taking it for ten or twenty years had actually been taking several different types with possibly different levels of cancer causing hormones. But, in general, the report concluded that "the pill" doubled to up to quadrupled a woman's chance of having breast cancer (Fitzgerald et al, 1996). Diethylstilbestrol (DES) was used to increase fertility from 1940 through 1960 and also decrease the chances of having a miscarriage. Studies showed it to increase the rate of breast cancer by 1.4. Exposure to estrogen during periods of rapid growth in the breast tissue during pregnancy may increase risk. In August of 1989, Swedish doctor Leif Bergkvist studied 23244 women ages 35 and up and found that an estrogen supplement that they were taking quadrupled chances for breast cancer (Fitzgerald et al, 1996).Breast cancer accounts for the highest number of new cases in women each year, and the war cry for breast cancer is, "1 in 8!" because ...
