It’s Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, so I thought I would share a really good blog post from DUTCH, who do tend to do a lot of good blog posts on hormonal subjects.
One of the reasons I like DUTCH is that you can see, not only what your overall oestrogen looks like, but how you are metabolising it down. As they explain in this piece, there are three main pathways and it’s important to know which is dominant as one is very protective, one not great and one you really don’t want high. The total doesn’t tell you that.
Understanding Estrogen’s Role in Breast Cancer Risk
Estrogen plays an important role in breast health but may also contribute to breast cancer risk when it’s not properly metabolized. Estrogen is broken down into three main metabolites:
2-hydroxyestrone (2-OH): A protective estrogen metabolite linked to a lower risk of breast cancer.
4-hydroxyestrone (4-OH): A potentially harmful metabolite associated with DNA damage and oxidative stress, both of which increase cancer risk.
16α-hydroxyestrone (16-OH): A harmful metabolite that promotes cell proliferation, increasing the likelihood of estrogen-sensitive cancers like breast cancer.
Maintaining a favorable balance of these metabolites has a possible role in reducing breast cancer risk. Specifically, higher levels of 2-OH (the protective metabolite) and lower levels of 4-OH and 16-OH (the harmful metabolites) are ideal.
You might also find my Oestrogen Dominance factsheet helpful. It’s important for men as much as women, note. There, I’ve given you some ideas and specific supplements etc to counter what you find. You can get the DUTCH test and other hormone tests here, (Men’s are here). Do read the text fully on those pages as I really worked hard on that and choosing the right tests for you!
You can also see my DUTCH test video here and I’ve written a guide to DUTCH results here for you too. (I just watched that video back – I must make time to do more of them!)
Read the full DUTCH blog post here, especially the bit half way down that goes through self examination methods and they follow with some good prevention ideas too:
Hope that helps. Do also look at my Cancer factsheet here – I need to do much more on this, but some useful stuff there already.