Hair Straighteners Linked to Uterine Cancer?
The Study
- Study group: 33 947 women participating in the Sister Study participants aged 35-74 years who had a uterus at enrollment (2003-2009)
- Participants self-reported their use of hair products in the prior 12 months, including hair dyes; straighteners, relaxers, or pressing products; and permanents or body waves
- Researchers uses statistical methods to examine associations between hair product use and uterine cancer
BEYOND THE HEADLINES
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
— “straighteners, relaxers, or pressing products” are reported as a group but these three use very different products and ingredients.
— women who used hair straighteners, relaxers, or pressing products had a higher BMI which is known to be a significant risk factor for uterine cancer.
— the authors make conclusions about risk to Black women in particular but Black women made up only 7% of the study population (12.9% of US population) and no differences were seen in the association by race/ethnicity.
— self-reporting causes a study to be vulnerable to recall and other biases.
WHAT WOMEN NEED TO KNOW
- –uterine cancer is uncommon—most women have a 1-2% risk over a lifetime.
- –uterine cancer is not the same as uterine fibroids which are benign tumors–not associated with cancer.
- –This study shows an association between product use and a medical diagnosis. It does NOT show that these products CAUSE uterine cancer.
KEY TAKEAWAY
The group using hair straighteners had a higher BMI and higher BMI is a major risk factor for uterine cancer. This could explain the association seen in this study.
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