HAVE MORE BABIES

Part of the reason we bought the place in Borrego Springs

 

Most of you already know that having babies lowers a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer.  You probably also are aware that this is a correlation, not proof of cause-and-effect.  (But I think it is.)  Well, Oxford University has just verified what you already knew; they studied 5700 British women for (well, hell, they don’t say how long), and found that having one child lowered the probability of developing OVCS by 20% - and the more kids you have, the lower the probability. For some (rarer) kinds of OVCA the risk reduction was even greater.   (My grandmother had nine kids – and didn’t develop OVCA.  Anecdotal evidence, you say, and you are right.  Raising all those kids, and in Cripple Creek Colorado at the turn of the last century, left her exhausted, but healthy.  She spent the last 20 years of her life sitting in a comfortable chair, smiling.)   Anyway, the same study showed that women who have their fallopian tubes removed are at a considerably lower risk of OVCA than otherwise.  You already knew that, too.

So why am a telling you all this, if you already know it?  Well, first of all it’s a big deal: journals from Nature to the sleaziest British tabloids are writing about it.  In case you have nothing better to do, read this:

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/102463/20151104/mothers-lower-ovarian-cancer-risks-with-every-child-study.htm

And also, I suspect that a few of you need to be reminded.

Finally, this finding has profound demographic consequences, which you can work out for yourself.