Endometriosis Is Averted by Breast-Feeding

Endometriosis, a common cause of chronic pelvic pain, affects about 10% of U.S. women and has no known cure. To study whether breast-feeding decreases women's risk for developing endometriosis, investigators analyzed data from 72,394 women who gave birth one or more times after enrolling in the Nurses' Health Study II, a prospective cohort study that began in 1989.

Incident laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis (self-reported) was more common among women who breast-fed for <1 month after delivery than women who breast-fed for longer durations. For each pregnancy, every 3-month increase in mean duration of exclusive breast-feeding per pregnancy was associated with a 14% decreased risk for endometriosis (hazard ratio, 0.86, 95% confidence i…