What increases my risk for endometrial (uterine) cancer?
The risk factors for endometrial (uterine) cancer include anything that causes excess estrogen and not enough progesterone to balance it out. Watch OB/GYN specialist Lauren Streicher, MD, discuss the main risk factors for uterine cancer.
Transcript
Endometrial cancer, of course, is the number one gynecologic cancer in this country, and there are a number of risk factors.
One of the big ones, of course, is obesity. And that is one of the reasons why the endometrial cancer risk is increasing in this country
is because so many women are overweight. And the problem with being overweight is that you make an excessive amount of estrogen,
which can cause an abnormal buildup in the lining of the uterus. And that's kind of the theme for uterine cancer is anything that
causes excess estrogen, and not enough progesterone to balance it out, can potentially increase the risk of uterine cancer.
So in addition to being overweight, we look at women who are taking estrogen for post-menopause, and maybe they're not taking a progestin
or they're not taking the right progestin, that's a risk factor. We know that women who are not ovulating,
maybe because they're perimenopausal, maybe because they have some other reason that they're not releasing an egg every month, that's going
to put them at increased risk. Women who take tamoxifen for either prevention or treatment of breast cancer also can sometimes
get an abnormal buildup in the lining of the uterus. And then, of course, there's family history. While most uterine cancers are not genetic, some are.
And there's a particular gene mutation which causes Lynch syndrome. And families that have Lynch syndrome not only
have an increased risk of uterine cancer, but also colon cancer, stomach cancer, and ovarian cancer.
cancer
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