Quote:
Originally Posted by raygunpk
is this true? so if you don't have kids early, you're totally screwed whether you wanna have em in the future or not?
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Yes. Going through pregnancy and nursing just once decreases your chances of having breast cancer by about 20%. Doing it younger, before you become vulnerable to breast cancer in the first place is an important part of the equation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12133652 is an article that goes on about how lowered birthrates and even lower breastfeeding rates seem to be a big contributing factor to reduced breast cancer rates.
Malcolm Gladwell did a really good and engaging article on how birth control also could but isn't used properly to decrease these risks and explains how even having a 9 month reprieve from the regular cycle provides protection against feminine cancers.
Frequency of downs by mother's age:
http://www.ds-health.com/risk.htm
At 30 you're 1/900, by 40 you're 1/100 chances and that's for only downs. You fall into "High Risk" at 37.
That doesn't look at any of the other disorders related to maternal age. Not to mention risks of hypertension and prenatal diabetes are higher as maternal age increases, which often results in the mother having to take early mat leave and in some cases even means complete bed rest.