Breast cancer is a serious risk for a large number of women, and it’s at the point where all risk factors are taken very seriously.
So when someone says something like “bras can cause breast cancer,” we take it seriously.
But according to just about every expert, there’s no foundation for this claim at all.
The main claim is that the rise in breast cancer over the past hundreds of years has been caused by increased bra wearing. But there is no scientific evidence for this claim, or any claim that connects bras to breast cancer.
The American Cancer Society said, “We do not know of any epidemiologic studies published in scientific journals that suggest bras directly contribute to breast cancer risk or that lymphatic compression by bras might cause breast cancer.”
There you have it. End of story.
In fact, someone did a study just to prove this theory wrong. A 2014 study published in the scientific journal “Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention,” said definitively:
“No aspect of bra wearing, including bra cup size, recency, average number of hours/day worn, wearing a bra with an underwire, or age first began regularly wearing a bra, was associated with risks of either [invasive ductal carcinoma] or [invasive lobular carcinoma]. Our results did not support an association between bra wearing and increased breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women.”
So why is this rumor going around?
Gwenyth Paltrow’s lifestyle site, Goop, recently posted an article about this. It was written by osteopathic doctor Habib Sadeghi, and it was based off of a 1995 book that claims that bras can cause breast cancer.
However, the “research” in this book didn’t take any of the known breast cancer risks—such as family history, weight, or any other relevant factor—into account, it only studied bra wearers versus non bra-wearers.
It was also independent research, wasn’t peer reviewed, and so has essentially no scientific leg to stand on.
None of the other claims seem to have much standing either.
What are some real risk factors?
Age, gender, family history, dense breast tissue, age at first menstruation, menopause, weight, physical activity, birth control use, and hormone therapy are all more reasonable and proven risk factors.
So wear your bra if you want to, or don’t. It’s your prerogative.
