The breast cancer risk factor that we didn’t know about until now…

In our 20s to our 50s, it would be unheard of if we hadn’t fluctuated in weight, but what if an increase in our skirt size meant more than buying a new wardrobe?

It has been found that going up one skirt size – specifically during your mid 20s to mid 50s – could increase your risk of postmenopausal breast cancer by 33 per cent…change that two sizes up and that more than doubles to 77 per cent. These are shocking figures because breast cancer is close to home for almost all of us.

10 years in that 30-year period is all it takes to put you at greater risk of developing one of our nation’s biggest killers, found a large observational study published in the BMJ Open journal.

While some may know that weight gain in general has links to breast cancer risk, a enlarged waist was found to be particularly harmful.

And this wasn’t data collected from a small clinical study, it was a huge research trial in England with 93,000 female participants, all over 50 and postmenopausal with no known breast cancer between 2005 and 2010.

Personal information about their height, weight, fertility, family history and use of hormone replacement therapy was provided as these can all affect breast cancer risk, plus their skirt size in their 20s and their present size. Over the monitoring period of 3 to 4 years, 1090 women developed breast cancer and although infertility, family history and HRT usage were linked to their diagnoses, however the strongest predictor by far was an increased skirt size during that crucial period.

With a healthy diet and exercise, gaining weight doesn’t have to just be a part of growing older and it certainly shouldn’t be ignored as something that just happens, especially now that we know this information.

Have you or someone you know suffered from breast cancer? Does this information come as a surprise? Have you had an increase in your waist size? Share your stories with us below.