Reproductive and menstrual factors for papillary thyroid cancer risk: A case-control study in Chinese women

Thyroid cancer (TC) is threefold more common in women than men. Reproductive and menstrual factors may be related to the onset of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). This study aims to determine the association of reproductive and menstrual factors with PTC in Chinese females.

A total of 335 histologically confirmed cases of PTC were recruited in this case-control study. The controls were matched for age with a deviation of ± 2 years, which conducted from September 2016 to February 2019. Logistic regression models were applied to identify the association of reproductive and menstrual factors with PTC.

After adjustment by some variables, early menarche age (OR ≤ 13 years vs. > 13years = 2.40, 95 % CI 1.12-5.13) and shorter lifetime breastfeeding (OR <6 months vs. ≥ 6 months = 1.99, 95 % CI 1.11-3.55) significantly increased the risk of PTC, whereas younger age at first pregnancy had a protective effect against PTC (OR ≤ 24years vs. > 24 years = 0.66, 95 % CI 0.44-0.98). There was a positive correlation between premenopausal and PTC in the lower age group (OR _{premenopausal vs. Menopause by natural} =2.34, 95 %CI 1.03-5.28).

Early menarche age, abortion, shorter breastfeeding duration and premenopausal may be related to the occurrence of PTC. Early age at first pregnancy and larger number of full-time pregnancies were possible to decrease the risk of PTC.