MEDICAL experts are divided over two new studies that suggest that women who got pregnant after taking fertility drugs or treatments such as in In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) may have higher odds for breast cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) later on in life.A study published recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that women using ovulation-stimulating fertility drugs who were unable to get pregnant for at least 10 weeks had a lower risk of breast cancer disease than women who have not taken the drugs.Another new study published recently in the Bulletin of the American Psychological Association suggests that women who undergo fertility treatments may find the situation so distressing that they develop PTSD. The findings suggest the definition of PTSD may need to be changed so that its causes include potentially traumatic experiences such as infertility.But a fertility expert and joint pioneer of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in Nigeria, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru disagrees.Ashiru, who is also the medical director of Medical Art Centre (MART), Ikeja, told The Guardian: 'Most of these reports are still very controversial and lack merit in the research studies. Many of the studies from Australia to Europe and the United States of America (USA) are at the end regarded as speculative.'Ashiru, however, said one aspect of breast cancer that is widely accepted is that a high proportion of breast cancer are due to the unopposed action of estrogen due to the absence of progesterone or an excessive production of estrogen as in obesity.He explained: 'A number of the fertility drugs that are used to cause multiple ovulations will also cause a rise in the circulating estrogen in the body. The risk is more if the individual used the fertility drugs to cause ovulation alone. In most fertility centers today, during the fertility treatment, progesterone is also introduced to help support the intended pregnancy especially in patients undergoing IVF treatment.''It, therefore, sounds to reason that the operative factor is estrogen. Most of the fertility treatment occurs in a balanced medium between estrogen and progesterone hence estrogen alone is not able to have its way since progesterone is administered externally.'The fertility expert, who is also an adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago, United States, said, as a matter of fact, recent studies have shown that breast cancer especially in the African or Blacks has to do with the gene control rather than poor nutrition or the social economic factors. 'It is mainly due to the ability of the body to regulate the rate of cell proliferation under the control of some specific genes,' he said.Ashiru further stated: 'Beyond this fact what is important to observe is weight control and the ability to avoid estrogenic substances from the food or the environment. The estrogenic substances are in some plastic containers used in cooking, drinking, or eating and in some oil-based vitamins such as Vitamin E and Flaxseed oil when given in very high dosages.''This is why some medical experts now suggest the use of body cleansing and detoxification to eliminate some of the estrogenic substances from the body.'Researchers, led by Chunyuan Fei, at the United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, examined women diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 50, as well as their sisters who did not have the disease, over the course of two years.The Journal of the National Cancer Institute study authors wrote: 'Our data suggest that exposure to a stimulated pregnancy is enough to undo the reduction in (breast cancer) risk associated with a history of exposure to ovulation-stimulating drugs.'The study's authors pointed out that the study was limited by its reliance on the participants' self-reported fertility drug usage, and a lack of information on each woman's specific diagnosis for infertility. The study is also complicated by the fact that it focuses on women who developed breast cancer before the age of 50, and these tumours are often associated with genetic factors.A PTSD study, which was presented at American Psychological Association meeting in Orlando in August, found that many women undergoing fertility treatment met the official criteria for PTSD. The study looked at the prevalence of PTSD in those who are diagnosed with infertility or secondary infertility and/or receiving treatment for infertility. The participants were asked to consider their infertility diagnosis and fertility treatment as their traumatic event and complete an online survey to assess PTSD symptoms.The study found: Of the 115 participants with primary infertility, 49 per cent met both the cut-off score and symptom pattern criterion for PTSD; Of the 27 percent with secondary infertility, 33 percent met both criteria; and symptoms included feeling upset at reminders of their infertility, such as seeing commercials for baby diapers, feeling distant or cut off from people, feeling irritable, feeling hopeless or changes in personality.According to Allison Bradow, the researcher on the study, the definition of 'trauma' needs to be expanded to include situations in which your expectations for your life, such as having a family, are threatened. In addition, she says that greater effort needs to be made to counsel couples going through fertility treatments to help them cope with the emotional and psychological effects of the experience.Infertility and fertility treatment are intense emotional experiences that are generally not understood by the general population. Other studies have indicated how important it is to seek support for infertility because of the mental health risk it poses.
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