cover image Estrogen and Breast Cancer: A Warning to Women

Estrogen and Breast Cancer: A Warning to Women

Carol Ann Rinzler. MacMillan Publishing Company, $22 (233pp) ISBN 978-0-02-603491-3

Rinzler ( The Dictionary of Medical Folklore ) notes that the probability of American women contracting breast cancer has risen alarmingly in the last 50 years, from a one-in-20 ratio to the current (and still rising) one-in-nine, and suggests that we ``bend the semantic line'' and call this situation an epidemic. While not dismissing various other causes of the cancer (exposure to environmental hazards, high fat intake, familial patterns), she proposes that the major blame could be laid on estrogen, whether absorbed in the form of birth control pills or during estrogen replacement therapy (ERT). Her argument will attract listeners, especially among women. Rinzler assumes little and explains much, from the workings of cancer generally (``Cancer isn't one disease; it is many'') to the legislative politics of estrogen and the FDA: she revisits the Nelson hearings, and chronicles the paradoxes of ERT (while it ``appeared to raise the risk of endometrial cancer in older women, estrogen/progestin oral contraceptives might actually lower the risk for young women''). Her balanced and informative look at an ongoing problem may not solve it, but Rinzler offers new thoughts and a comprehensive knowledge. First serial to Fitness Magazine . (July)