High Blood Estrogen Levels and Breast Cancer

Blood estrogen levels are important natural hormones during sexual development and various body functions. Higher estrogen levels are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer, especially after menopause.

In a study, the risk of developing breast cancer was twice as high for women who experienced higher levels of estrogen than women who had lower levels of estrogen. Despite this, estrogen levels are not currently being used to asses breast cancer risk. However, estrogen levels may be used to assess breast cancer risk in the future.

Furthermore, estrogen is produced in fat tissue. As you may already know, being overweight and obese is associated with a higher risk of breast cancer. Thus, those with higher estrogen levels and have more fat may be at higher risk of breast cancer than those who have lower estrogen levels and lower amounts of fat.

As estrogen levels vary during premenopausal status, studies have been difficult to conduct, but several studies have found that higher estrogen levels may moderately increase ones chance of developing breast cancer.

Information and image obtained from the following website(s):

https://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/HighLevelsofEstrogenintheBlood.html

https://sco.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Estradiol.svg