Causes of Menopausal Women Vulnerable to Endometrial Cancer

The ending of the menstrual site can actually make women more susceptible to it endometrial cancer. Why can this condition occur? Check out the full explanation in the following review.

Overview of Endometrial Cancer

Keep in mind, uterus is a pelvic organ that has a pear-shaped shape and is hollow. That’s where the growth of the fetus occurs. Nowplease note that endometrial cancer grows inside the lining of cells that forms the lining of the uterus (endometrium).

There are two main types of endometrial cancer, namely:

• Type 1 endometrial cancer, is the most common type. Type 1 endometrial cancer cells grow slowly and can be detected early. Type 1 form of endometrial cancer is endometrioid adenocarcinomas.
• Type 2 endometrial cancer, is a type of cancer that is more aggressive, so that the development and spread of cancer cells occurs more quickly. Type 2 endometrial cancer is uterine serous carcinomas and clear cell carcinomas.

Endometrial cancer is one type cancer in the female reproductive organs which tend to appear at the age of 60-70 years.

Reason Endometrial Cancer Occurs in Menopausal Women

The main cause of endometrial cancer is still not completely certain. However, health experts suspect that this is related to an imbalance in the hormones progesterone and estrogen. The problem is that this condition can occur in women who have reached the phase menopause.

If levels of the hormone progesterone are much lower than the hormone estrogen, the lining of the uterus will become thicker. This is what can trigger the formation of cancer cells.

A woman who entering the menopause phase later, that is, after the age of 50 years have a higher risk of developing this.

After menopause, the ovaries have stopped producing the hormones progesterone and estrogen. However, small amounts of the hormone estrogen are still produced naturally in fat tissue.

It is this estrogen hormone in fat tissue that has a greater influence after menopause than before menopause, especially in terms of triggering endometrial cancer.

Some other causes of endometrial cancer include: obesity, history of menstruation too early, and having had hormone therapy to treat breast cancer

Also Read: Excess Estrogen Hormones can Trigger This Disease

How to Treat Endometrial Cancer

There are several types of treatment that can be done to treat this condition. It’s just that, the choice of treatment depends on the location of the cancer, the type of cancer, the size of the tumor that appears, the stage of the cancer, to the health condition.

The following are several actions that can be taken to treat endometrial cancer, including:

1. Operation

In the early stages, general surgery is performed to treat this condition. This operation can be a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) and salpingo-oophorectomy or removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

In a hysterectomy procedure, doctors generally also remove lymph nodes in the uterine area. This procedure is performed to detect the spread of cancer cells.

Meanwhile, a salpingo-oophorectomy is performed because of the possibility that tumor cells can spread to the ovaries, and dormant cancer cells that may remain will be stimulated by estrogen produced by the ovaries.

2. Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the consumption of drugs to kill various cancer cells in the body in order to prevent them from continuing to grow. The types of chemotherapy drugs used are cisplatin, carboplatin, doxorubicin or paclitaxel.

Chemotherapy, preferably for treating stage 3 cancer or more.

Also Read: Perimenopause: Symptoms, Causes, and How to Overcome it

3. Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy or radiation therapy can use a special machine that emits energy to the part of the body affected by cancer or uses radioactive materials that are inserted into vital organs.

Action radiotherapy it can also be used to inhibit the spread of cancer cells when surgery cannot be performed. Two types of radiotherapy, namely:

• External radiotherapyby directing energy beams to areas of the body affected by cancer.
• Internal radiotherapyby placing a radioactive material in the vagina.

4. Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy can be done in patients with endometrial cancer who have experienced the spread of cancer to the outside of the uterus. This therapy can be in the form of increasing the amount of the hormone progesterone and decreasing the amount of the hormone estrogen in the body.

Hormonal therapy may be considered if the patient meets the following criteria:

• Disease confined to the endometrium confirmed by MRI.
• There are no metastases on imaging.
• There are no contraindications to hormone therapy or pregnancy.

Drugs used in hormone therapy include progestins, tamoxifen, or letrozole.

Now, that is a complete explanation of why menopausal women are prone to endometrial cancer. As a preventive measure, if you experience anything abnormal in the vagina, consult your doctor immediately to get the right medical diagnosis.

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