Women who use chemical hair straightening products are at a higher risk for uterine cancer compared to women who do not use these products, according to a new study from the National Institutes of Health.
However, the researchers did not find any association with uterine cancer for other hair products that the women reported using, including hair dyes, bleach, highlights, or perms.
HAIR STRAIGHTENING PRODUCTS; METHOD
For the study, the researchers included data of 33,497 US women aged 35-74 who participated in the Sister Study, a study led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences(NIEHS), part of NIH, that seeks to identify risk factors for breast cancer and other health conditions. The women were followed for almost 11 years and during that time, 378 uterine cancer cases were diagnosed.
HAIR STRAIGHTENING PRODUCTS; FINDINGS
The researchers said that they found women who frequently used hair straightening products were more than twice as likely to go on to develop uterine cancer compared to those who did not use the products.
“We estimated that 1.64% of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70; but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05%,” said Alexandra White, Ph.D., head of the NIEHS Environment and Cancer Epidemiology group and lead author. “This doubling rate is concerning. However, it is important to put this information into context – uterine cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer.”
Uterine cancer accounts for about 3% of all new cancer cases but is the most common cancer of the female reproductive system, with 65,950 estimated new cases in 2022. Studies show that incidence rates of uterine cancer have been rising in the United States, particularly among Black women.
Approximately 60% of the participants who reported using straighteners in the previous year were self-identified Black women, according to the study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Although, the study did not find that the relationship between straightener use and uterine cancer incidence was different by race, the adverse health effects may be greater for Black women due to higher prevalence of use.
“Because Black women use hair straightening or relaxer products more frequently and tend to initiate use at earlier ages than other races and ethnicities, these findings may be even more relevant for them,” said Che-Jung Chang, Ph.D., an author on the new study and a research fellow in the NIEHS Epidemiology Branch.
The findings are consistent with prior studies showing straighteners can increase the risk of hormone-related cancers in women.
