NHS choices has an item on the recent reports that ‘obesity in post menopausal women is the main “risk factor” for cancer’. The interesting point for many of us is that they point out that this is an association, and that so far ‘we cannot tell if obesity definitely raises hormone levels or if hormone levels contribute to a woman’s obesity.’
My own experience is that my weight jumped when I entered menopause, with no change of diet or activity, returned to the previous level while I was on HRT, then jumped again when I stopped HRT. I’m overweight but not obese.
Has anyone else had similar experience?
PS: I haven’t worked out how to post this as a live link.
It’s come through live - think it does this automatically when you “submit”.
Yep my BC came on when I gained weight post-menopause but I don’t think HRT was the reason - was just eating too much to cope with stresses in life as have always been a comfort eater (until now when I’ve eliminated sugars etc). Factor seems to be the mid-section and growth in fats/insulin production in liver - so quite a complex issue with hormones in the mix too!!
I’ve long thought that hormones can trigger obesity. I was always very thin as a child, and in my early twenties very slim (size 10, 5 ft 8). Never ever had a weight problem until I developed severe endometriosis - then wham.
Weight gain became a good indicator for me of how bad my endometriosis was. Under control I was back to normal weight. Endometriosis bad and it could go up by 2 - 3 stone.
Of course, what I’m not sure about was how much the hormone treatments i was being given were a factor.
It’s possibly a bit of both, with weight gain increasing levels of oestrogen as well. And so it goes on in a cycle…
I know some doctors dismiss it as a myth but i was on the pill temporarily aged about 20. I gained 2 stone in 6 months which disappeared magically when I came off it.
I have always had to watch my weight as I can gain weight easily sometimes for no apparent reason.
I was thin for a number of years, including when i conceived and was pregnant. I shed most of the pregnancy weight after the birth but seemed to struggle with water retention or something when i was breastfeeding.
However when i was diagnosed I started on a vegan diet etc and lost a lot of weight on neo adjuvant chemo, surgery and rads. However when I started on tamoxifen, i gained 6 stone in 2 years (without changing my diet). This remained fairly constant for 6 years. I have managed to lose about a stone since being on an AI but have had to try really hard. If i eat what others around me eat, I can put on a stone in less than a week. Maybe I am just weird. As I have a secondary diagnosis now I am not sure what I can do but it does worry me.
Julie x
I was a thin child and slender into my 30s. Although my weight tended to go up over the years, I only tipped over into the overweight category at menopause. Now, of course, I have the chemo weight to shed as well.
I have found exactly the same as Julie - gained weight on the pill, and have found it much harder to lose weight since being on hormone therapy, despite paying extremely close attention to diet. I eat less than half as many calories as my husband who has a largely sedentary lifestyle and maintains a steady weight - when he diets the weight falls off him. It’s so unfair.
I realy think there should be two weight charts, one for pre and one for post menopause. Then we older ladies would feel better about not being the same weight as we were when we were young, stop going on yo-yo diets and settle down to just being a bit matronly.
Nobody criticises a girl putting on weight at puberty as her hormones tell her body to develop breasts and curves. Unless she is overweight, nobody says she put the pounds on because she ate too much, it is accepted as part of her development. In the same way a our hormones change later in life, we should give ourselves a break and not blame ourselves.
Mind you there are always the lucky few whos bodies ignore the signals and stay skinny all their lives.
Did you know that there is a theory that people who love to jog and go to gymns are not thin because they are active–they are active because they are thin. Their hypothalamous does not want them to have lots of fat cells so it make them feel good using their bodies to get rid of it. Whereas if we rounder ladies do do some excercise our bodies make us slow down and do nothing afterwards so that we conserve our fat.
I have had breast cancer for 21 years now and never had a problem with my weight until I started taking tamoxifen, put on a stone and a half, despite being very active swimming etc and running around after 4 kids couldent shift it. I had a reccurence 3 years ago and am now on arimidex and once again the weight piled on and am finding it hard to shift. So my question is because I am now obese is that my fault and do I still qualify as an obese lady at extra risk even though its the drugs that have made me put on weight. And what about all those porkies smoking and drinking walking about without breast cancer. Over the yeras I have concluded that if it was that simple we would all be thin and there would be no breast cancer, how many of us were thin when we developed bc. best wishes suzan x
OAL - love that theory.
Most people I know that stay thin into old age and who don’t monitor every single thing that crosses their lips often tend to be what I might call ‘highly strung’. They are restless and always on the move and don’t relax much.
Am I the only one getting fed up with all this “risk factor” stuff?!
Today’s dose is that if you are tall you are more at “risk” and it was qualified at lunch time as this may be because tall people have more cells… what a load of old b****ks. I think J Plant had a good point when she said that many of these “factors” are just describing people’s lifestyle or physique and actually has no relation to getting bc.
yes the report I read says that if naturally thin people excercise then they still fidget afterwards, whereas if people who are naturally a bit rounder excercise than afterwards the just slump and their body hardly moves to compensate–they do not realise they are doing it, it just happens. Mind you the study goes on to say that excercise is good for developing cardiovacular strentgh, and depending on the activity suppleness but it concluded that it was not good for overall weight loss. it said few people just exercise, they alter their eating to so they can start to loose wieght, but eventually the body cottons on and makes us change and put back on the weight it wants us to have.
(nb, this did not apply to those that just cut our sugar and fructose, once they got over the cravings they did loose wieght, something to do with the insulin reaction and the hormones and stuff
by the way is this risk just obese women or is it overwieght too?