Although there are relatively few people talking about it, womb cancer isn’t as uncommon as you might think; even more, it is the 4th most common kind of cancer in the UK. It usually happens among women between the ages of 60 and 79.
Risk factors for the cancer of the womb
At the moment specialists don’t have exact information on what causes the condition. Nonetheless there are some factors that can increase or decrease the chances of contracting it. In the majority of the cases the obese or overweight women are more likely to experience it than the women who have a normal weight.
The truth about the cancer of the womb is that if you have a risk factor, it doesn’t mean that it is sure that you will develop the condition. On the other hand, if you don’t have risk factors, it doesn’t mean that you won’t develop the cancer.
A lot of acting risk factors of womb cancer are related to the exposure of the body to the female sex hormone, estrogen or to the balance of the estrogen and progesterone hormones.
In case there is estrogen without progesterone to balance it, the chances of developing the cancer increases.
You have to know regarding the cancer of the womb that after menopause the body stops producing progesterone, but it still produces some amount of estrogen. This is why the condition is more common in case of older women.
When it comes to the cancer of the womb, you should know that certain aspects of your menstrual history can also represent risk factors. These factors include whether you started having menstruation at an early age or if you entered menopause later than usual.
The interesting thing about womb cancer is that it is less common among the women who had children. In case you had several children, your chances are even smaller.
How common the condition is?
The most common kind of cancer of the womb affects the endometrium that is the lining of the uterus, and all the cancers of this kind start here. There are about 7,700 women diagnosed having this kind of condition in the UK on a yearly basis. Still only about 5% of all are diagnosed with cancer is of this kind.
Age
As it has been mentioned, womb cancer is common among women in menopause, between the ages of 60 and 79. About 93 percent of the cases happen after the age of 50. Only in 1 or 2 percent of the cases, women diagnosed with the condition are under the age of 40.
There is a gene fault known as HNPCC that increases the chances of women developing the condition at an early age.
Diet
Although diet seems to have a small role to play in the development of the condition, it is said that the women having a diet rich in fat are more likely to develop it. It is not certain whether womb cancer develops because of the fats, or because this way women become overweight.
