The Protective Effect of Breastfeeding and Ingesting Human Breast Milk on Subsequent Risk of Endometriosis in Mother and Child: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Samaneh Youseflu, Mitra Savabi-Esfahani, Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi, Azam Maleki
Breastfeeding medicine : the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine · 2022 · vol. 17(10) , pp. 805–816 · doi:10.1089/bfm.2022.0126 · PMID:36282195 · W4307582201
meta-analysis OA: hybrid CC0 ⤵ 2 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-13 ⓘ

Ingesting human breast milk and breastfeeding are inversely associated with the subsequent risk of endometriosis in both mothers and children.

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Abstract

Background: Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating disease characterized by ectopic, endometrium-like tissue outside the uterine cavity. Objective: The current meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of breastfeeding and ingesting human breast milk on the subsequent risk of endometriosis. Materials and Methods: The English and Persian databases were systematically searched in accordance with the Mesh browser keywords and free-text words until March 12, 2022. The Newcastle-Ottawa was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Publication bias was assessed using Begg's and Egger's tests, and funnel plot. The heterogeneity of studies was evaluated using I2 statistics. Results of the random-effects meta-analysis were presented using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: In total, 18 articles with 10,994 subjects were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, the pool estimates show that breastfeeding (OR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.71-0.88, I2 = 89%) and ingesting human breast milk (OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.50-0.83, I2 = 84.5%) have significantly a protective effect on the risk of endometriosis. Conclusion: Our findings confirm an inverse association between endometriosis risk and ingesting human breast milk, and breastfeeding. Therefore, the importance of breastfeeding for both mother and child should be considered by policymakers and health care providers.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Adult Adult Adult Adult Adult Adult Adult

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Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (31)

Cited by (2)

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europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-17T06:13:18.893374+00:00
openalex
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