What Can I Do If I'm At Risk for Endometrial Cancer?
If you have any of the risk factors for endometrial cancer, what can you do? The best thing you can do is lower your risk in areas you can control. You can also make some general lifestyle changes to reduce your risk. Seeking evaluation early at the first sign of abnormal bleeding is also important. It improves your chance of the cancer being diagnosed at its earliest state.
Eat a balanced diet and maintain a healthy weight.
Limit the fat in your diet. Eat a moderate amount of a variety of foods. Get regular physical activity. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, work with your healthcare team to manage your condition. Your plan may include diet, exercise, and even medication. These steps will all help keep your weight within a healthy range.
Consider taking birth control pills.
Going through pregnancy helps protect you from endometrial cancer. So if you don’t plan to have children, consider taking birth control pills. Birth control pills can provide benefits similar to being pregnant. Birth control pills that contain both estrogen and progesterone help maintain a healthy balance of these hormones in your uterus. Taking combination oral contraceptives is associated with a decreased risk of developing endometrial cancer.
Review your hormone replacement strategy.
Perhaps you have already gone through menopause. If so, you may use estrogen replacement therapy to help deal with the changes in your body. Talk with your doctor about taking progesterone along with estrogen. Or if symptoms of menopause have stopped, you may be able to reduce or stop hormone replacement therapy.
Keep your blood pressure and blood sugar under control.
See your doctor for regular check-ups. That way, you’ll know if you have high blood pressure or high blood sugar levels. If you have hypertension, make sure you keep all your follow-up appointments with your doctor. Your doctor will help you keep your blood pressure under control. It can take a while to find the right combination of treatments, so try to be patient. Your persistence will make a big difference in terms of your long term health. If you have diabetes, also keep all your follow-up appointments. Ask yourself if you are doing all you can to keep your diabetes in check. Your doctor and family may be able to help you.
Don’t delay getting unusual vaginal bleeding checked by your doctor.
Women who are still having periods should have any heavy, prolonged, sporadic, or unexpected bleeding checked by a doctor. Women who have gone through menopause should have ANY bleeding checked immediately. Vaginal bleeding after menopause is one of the earliest warning signs of endometrial cancer. Your doctor may advise an endometrial biopsy.
Talk with your doctor about how to lower your risk due to your family history of Lynch syndrome. This is also called hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer—HNPCC. A group from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center did risk-reducing surgery on women with Lynch syndrome. These women had a hysterectomy, with removal of both fallopian tubes and ovaries. Results showed that women who had had the surgery did not develop endometrial, ovarian, or peritoneal cancers. In contrast, many women who did not have surgery did develop one of these cancers.
If you are diagnosed with breast cancer, make sure you talk about your risk for endometrial cancer with your doctor. One type of hormone therapy used for breast cancer, Nolvadex (tamoxifen), increases your risk for endometrial cancer. Ask your doctor if there are other choices of treatment to consider.