It’s almost never one thing that “causes” cancer (asbestos and mesothelioma are exceptional). The worst feature of my recent life (screening detected tiny cancer, surgery and RT) has been HRT withdrawal, after many years. Who knows what factors came together to allow these mutant cells to grow? I didn’t have babies till I was 34 (bad) but I breastfed for years (good), smoked heavily passively from conception, and for a few years actively (bad), but gave up long ago (good). There are so many factors I can’t change- it would be ridiculous to blame my long-dead mother now because she smoked, or myself for not having babies earlier (the adverse effects of motherhood without a good father for them outweigh any reduced breast cancer risk, not only for me). Most of us have been fatter than ideal at some stage in our lives, and haven’t been as active as was good for us- we are even told “sitting is the new smoking!”, even if you work out to recommended levels and beyond. Nobody can ever know what combination of factors came together to cause their breast cancer, or whether, with small changes, they’d have had another disease; nuns/virgins are prone to cancer of the womb, but sexual experience risks cervical cancer... And so, I’m not going to nag my daughter to have a baby before she’s 30, much as I long for grandchildren, and I’ll even try to bite my tongue if she doesn’t breastfeed for six months minimum. I don’t have to worry about her being overweight or a couch potato, which carry so many risks to health, for which I am thankful.
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