Obesity

As well as raising a woman’s risk of breast cancer, obesity is strongly linked to endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterus/womb).

This is caused by the excessive fat cells converting natural male type hormones to oestrogen derivative hormones.

The excess oestrogen effect causes stimulation to the lining of the uterus.

This is not opposed by progesterone hormone and therefore leads to endometrial hyperplasia (overgrowth of the lining of the uterus) then developing further into cancer of the uterus.

Severely overweight women are *10 times more likely to develop endometriod cancer (cancer of the uterus) than those with normal weight (body mass index).

*(BJOG 2013;120:791-4).