Breast-feeding and benign breast disease

Benign breast disease (BBD) is very common among women in their fertile age, but its correlation with breast reproductive function remains unclear. Our study aimed to investigate the relation between BBD and breast-feeding. We collected data on 105 women with BBD and 98 controls, focusing on their reproductive history and breast-feeding. We analysed data by R (version 2.12.1) considering p < 0.05 as significant. The results showed that fibroadenoma represented the most frequent BBD (55%), followed by fibrocystic changes (19%), intraductal papilloma (6%) and inflammatory breast disorders (5%). The mean age was 31.5 years (± 6.1), BMI 21.2 kg/m² (± 3.4) and age at menarche 13.0 years (± 1.5). Duration of breast-feeding was not significantly different between controls and BBD types (p = NS). Selecting women with fibroadenoma breast-feeding duration directly correlated with the number of benign lesions (p < 0.05), which remains significant also by multivariate analysis. It was concluded that there seemed to be no difference in breast-feeding among BBDs types, but lactation may influence the number of fibroadenomas. Moreover, prospective studies would better define the correlation between lactation and BBDs.