If breast cancer is ER+, wouldn't it help to avoid phthalates?

Posted by kiki92 @kiki92, Aug 8, 2022

If your breast cancer is ER+, wouldn't it help to avoid phthalates? I'm not able to find info on this. In fact, not sure which phthalates increase estrogen and which decrease it. My concern is phthalates in maxi-pads, which I've used every day for almost 20 Years, for leaky bladder. Almost 90% of pads contain phthalates. It hasn't been long since they were found to be in maxi-pads, but I'm very hungry for any research as it comes out. The skin where the pads go is thin. I'm bound to have absorbed a lot of phthalates through this route.

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Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Aug 20, 2022

Hi @kiki92,
Here are a couple of recent studies that look at phthalates and breast cancer risk and breast cancer recurrence.

- Urinary phthalate exposures and risk of breast cancer: the Multiethnic Cohort study https://breast-cancer-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13058-021-01419-6
"The epidemiologic evidence from observational studies on breast cancer risk and phthalates, endocrine disrupting chemicals, has been inconsistent."

- Association between recurrent breast cancer and phthalate exposure modified by hormone receptors and body mass index https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06709-3
"The association between phthalate exposure and breast cancer remains controversial."

You might appreciate this plainer language article from Breastcancer.org that includes information on phthalates
- Exposure to Chemicals in Cosmetics https://www.breastcancer.org/risk/risk-factors/exposure-to-chemicals-in-cosmetics