According to a recent study, women who use chemical hair straightening treatments may be more susceptible to uterine cancer. Yet Black women has the higher risk because of their higher consumption than White women.
What Is Uterine Cancer?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, uterine cancer, a kind of cancer that originates in the uterus, is a risk factor for all women who have a uterus, but the risk rises with age, particularly during and after menopause.
Despite making up only around 3% of all cancer cases, it is the most prevalent gynecologic cancer in the United States.
Hair Straightening Users May Develop Uterine Cancer
The National Institutes of Health-funded study discovered a link between frequent self-reported usage of hair straightening products and a more than doubled risk of developing uterine cancer in the future.
According to Dr. Alexandra White, the study's primary author, uterine cancer will emerge in 1.64% of women who have never used hair straighteners by the time they are 70 years old. However, that risk increases to 4.05% for regular users.
Black Women More Prone to Uterine Cancer
According to GMA, more than 33,000 women between the ages of 35 and 74 were considered frequent users of the hair-straightening products, which is defined as using them more than four times in the previous year.
Because they use these products more frequently than other women, black women may have an increased chance of developing uterine cancer as a result of hair straightening products.
In the study, Black women made up almost 60% of the women who admitted to using chemical straightening products.
Black women tend to use hair straightening or relaxing treatments more regularly and start using them earlier than women of other races and ethnicities so these findings may be even more applicable to them, according to Dr. Che-Jung Chang, who co-authored the study with White.
The study's findings are of great concern to Black women who have long used hair straightening and relaxing products due in part to the hair bias they encounter in society, especially in workplaces and schools, according to board-certified dermatologist Dr. Madeliene Gainers.
"Hair relaxers are problematic." Gainers said. They are not carefully controlled, and they are not even required to disclose every ingredient. Because hair relaxers include such harsh chemicals that they can lead to lesions and burns on the scalp, their penetration is much stronger and their absorption by the scalp is improved.
Chemicals from hair products may be taken into the body, disrupting the hormonal balance and increasing the risk of cancer and other illnesses.
It may have similar effects on your body as swallowing the substances. Gainer stated, "Unfortunately, just because it's being applied to the skin, it doesn't stop it from being hazardous.
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Further Research Required
The authors of the study emphasize that additional research is required to pinpoint exactly which hair-straightening chemicals may be associated with a higher risk of uterine cancer.
The study did include several important restrictions. Only 7% of the study's participants were Black, and more than 80% of the women were non-Hispanic white. But the figures might alter if races were distributed equally.
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