Breast feeding helps…but you have to have breasts!

The results of a large study recently published in The Archives of Internal Medicine were released this week, creating a substantial buzz within research and breast cancer communities.  Although there is still extensive follow-up research that needs to be done to ensure that other behaviors and factors are not causing this correlation, the study appears to show that among premenopausal women who are at higher risk for breast cancer because of a family history of the disease, breast-feeding has an incredibly protective effect.  The author of the study, Dr. Stuebe, even reported that the effect of breast-feeding could be as strong as that of Tamoxifen, the “chemoprevention” drug that is often given to high-risk women to lower their risk for breast cancer.  Breast-feeding was ONLY protective among women who are premenopausal and had a family history of breast cancer. So if you’re old and/or have good genes, feel free to break out the formula (although I can’t promise that your kid will be better off…).

Read more details here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/health/research/11cancer.html?_r=1&ref=health

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090811/hl_hsn/breastfeedingmaylowerbreastcancerrisk

This is a really interesting and significant finding and if further research verifies it, it could benefit a lot of women.  I can’t help thinking, however, of all of the mutants like me.  Our thought process tends to differ from that of normal women and even other high-risk groups.  As soon as I read these articles, I started to wonder if  other BRCA women were sitting at their computers running over some of the same questions in their head.

First of all, what about all of the young women who have already HAD prophylactic mastectomies??  What does it mean for them?  In an ideal world, they would have had this little token of info as one thought to consider when they were deciding whether or not to have the surgery, but now it’s too late for that.  What kind of effect will not physically being able to breast-feed have on us?

Then, I of course come back to my personal journey towards ditching my boobs.  When I decided I was definitely going to have the surgery, but just hadn’t decided when, I had a long, emotional conversation with my boyfriend.  As I bared my soul to him, I solidified my own confidence in my decision.  I heard myself saying things and as I said them, I realized they were, in fact, true.  I can live with out breasts, but I’m not sure I can live with breast cancer. No one in my family has managed it yet.  I never even liked my breasts that much anyway.   I know I can learn to love my body in whatever new state it encompasses. But…but…but… the ONE thing I kept coming back to was “I have a hard time with the fact that I won’t be able to breast-feed my kids.”  Breast-feeding, to me, has always been the most beautiful, organic connection between mother and child- her body literally sustaining her tiny being a while longer before they have to become entirely physically seperate for good.  I wasn’t sure I could deal with feeding my baby formula.  It upset me.

And now, now this.  Now I’m second guessing my decision to have the surgery first and then kids.  Because, after all, maybe I can have it all.  Maybe I can breast-feed my kids, lower my risk for breast cancer at the same time, and THEN trade them in for prettier (slightly bigger) ones.  But it frustrates me that one research finding can make me question something I’ve spent years deliberating.

I think, in reality, the “buzz” that breaking news like this creates sucks people, including me, in.  I think, in reality, that this changes little to nothing about my current circumstances.

But I can’t help wondering…will my baby know I’m jipping him/her?

I’ll never know.