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Overall risk is very small, and older women who used hormonal contraceptives many years ago aren't likely to have a higher risk.

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Hormonal birth control � whether it comes as pills, injections, a ring, an intrauterine device (IUD), or an implant � may raise your risk of breast cancer, according to a study published Dec. 7, 2017, in The New England Journal of Medicine.

If you're like many women who currently use one of these contraceptive methods, or if you used one for years in the past, should you be worried?

Research we're watching

If a woman has gestational diabetes during her pregnancy, she has a higher risk of developing diabetes later. But a study published February 10 in Diabetes Care found that breastfeeding may help reduce that risk.

The study, which used data from the Nurses' Health Study II, found that the longer a woman nursed her infant, the lower her risk of developing diabetes later in life. The study included more than 4,000 women who had gestational diabetes. Of those women, more than 800 developed diabetes within the next 25 years. Those who breastfed for six to 12 months were 9% less likely to develop diabetes, compared with women who didn't breastfeed at all. Women who breastfed for one to two years had a 15% lower risk of developing diabetes, compared with women who didn't breastfeed. And diabetes risk was 27% lower in women who breastfed for more than two years. This provides another reason that doctors may want to encourage women with gestational diabetes to breastfeed whenever possible.

What prompts a woman to become a surrogate or gestational carrier, carrying a child for people she may not know? The answers seem straightforward in some instances and more complex in others.

Women who are hoping to become pregnant want to do everything they can to ensure that their babies will be as healthy as possible, which means following recommendations to minimize the possibility of birth defects.

Ask the doctors

Q. I was recently diagnosed with a uterine fibroid. My doctor told me that the type I have is called a submucosal fibroid. What does this mean?

A. Uterine fibroids are common, affecting some 70% or more women. Doctors describe fibroids based on where in the uterus they are growing. There are three main types: