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Women who were treated with radiation to fight cancer in childhood may be at risk of bleeding excessively after giving birth according to a new study released from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Researchers investigated pregnancy and birth outcomes of 40 women who had been treated at about age 7 year for cancers of the blood, kidney, bone, and other sites.
Women who received radiation at this age had a 33 percent higher risk of severe bleeding after childbirth than those who were not exposed to radiation. The cancer survivors also delivered on average four weeks earlier than other women in the study.
The study findings were published first in the February issue of the journal Human Reproduction.