Breastfeeding Seems to Protect Both Mother and Baby From Endo

Breastfeeding and ingesting breast milk seem to decrease the risk of developing endometriosis.

Key Points

Highlights: 

• Breastfeeding seems to protect both the mother and the baby from endometriosis

Importance:

• This knowledge should be considered by policymakers and healthcare providers in order to encourage and allow mothers to breastfeed their babies.

What's done here:

• Researchers conducted a literature review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of breastfeeding and ingesting breast milk on the risk of endometriosis later in life.
• The English and Persian databases were systematically searched.
• In total, 18 articles with more than 10K subjects were included.

Key results:

• The findings of the study confirm an inverse association between endometriosis risk and ingesting human breast milk, and breastfeeding.
• In other words, breastfeeding and ingesting breast milk significantly protect against the risk of endometriosis.

Limitation:

• This a meta-analysis of published data and the findings may be skewed due to publication bias.

Lay Summary

Breastfeeding seems to decrease the risk of endometriosis, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Breastfeeding Medicine. Similarly, there seems to be a negative association between ingesting breast milk and the risk of developing endometriosis later in life. 

This finding underscores the importance of breastfeeding both for the mother and the baby and “should be considered by policymakers and health care providers,” according to the authors of the study.

In order to evaluate the effect of breastfeeding and ingesting breast milk on the risk of endometriosis later in life, a team of researchers from Iran and Australia led by Dr. Azam Maleki from the Social Determinants of Health Research Center at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, in Iran conducted a review and meta-analysis of the literature.

They analyzed 18 articles that included a total of 10,994 people. 

The results showed that breastfeeding and ingesting breast milk had a significant protective effect against the risk of endometriosis.

Endometriosis is a debilitating condition affecting as many as 1 in 10 women of reproductive age worldwide. The physical, psychological, and economic burden of the disease both on patients and society is huge.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36282195/