Background: Genital talc and douching are practices that can involve exposure to chemical compounds linked to certain gynecologic cancers. However, it is unclear if they are associated with fibroid risk or age at fibroid diagnosis among women.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of early-adolescence genital talc use and douching on prevalence of fibroids diagnosed before the age of 35 and 50 years among Black/African American and non-Hispanic White women.
Study design: Data were derived from the Sister Study (2003-2020), a prospective cohort of 50,884 US women aged 35 to 74 years at enrollment. Participants were asked if they ever had a fibroid diagnosis and at what age, and if they used genital talc and/or douched between the ages of 10 and 13 years or in the past 12 months. After applying predefined exclusion criteria, our analytical sample size was n=46,316 (Black, n=4310; non-Hispanic White, n=42,006). Multivariable logistic regression was used to compute adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for having vs not having early-onset fibroids diagnosed before age 35 among women aged 35 to 74 years at enrollment, and fibroids diagnosed before age 50 among women aged 50 to 74 years at enrollment. We adjusted for early life factors (in utero diethylstilbestrol exposure, singleton or multiple birth, fed soy formula during infancy), childhood socioeconomic status, and relative weight and height compared with peers at age 10. We used multiple imputation (<10% missing in all analyses). Results were stratified by race/ethnicity given that Black women are more likely to develop fibroids at a younger age than non-Hispanic White women.
Results: Among Black/African American women, 29% had fibroids diagnosed before age 35. Both genital talc use at age 10 to 13 (adjusted odds ratio, 1.23; confidence interval, 1.06-1.41) and douching (adjusted odds ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.95-1.48) were associated with higher odds of having a fibroid diagnosed before age 35. Douching without talc use was not associated with increased odds, but combined use of genital talc and douche was associated with 52% increased odds of fibroids (confidence interval, 1.14-2.01). Among non-Hispanic White women, 9% reported fibroids diagnosed before age 35. Genital talc use (1.31; 1.20-1.44) but not douching (0.96; 0.77-1.20) at age of 10 to 13 years was associated with having a fibroid diagnosed before age 35. We observed similar patterns for non-Hispanic White women when we considered fibroids diagnosed before age 50, but neither practice was associated with fibroids diagnosed before age 50 in Black women.
Conclusion: Genital talc use in early adolescence, alone and in combination with douching (but not douching alone), is associated with prevalence of fibroids diagnosed before age 35 among Black/African American women and before ages 35 and 50 among non-Hispanic White women. Early adolescence may be a window of susceptibility for fibroid development, suggesting that adolescent girls should be educated on abstention from or alternatives to talc use and douching.
Keywords: adolescence; douching; feminine hygiene; fibroids; genital talc; leiomyoma; women.
Published by Elsevier Inc.