Going up a skirt size each decade between the mid-twenties and mid-sixties could dramatically increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.
A study of almost 93,000 women by University College London found that a thickening waist was a strong indicator of breast cancer risk after the menopause.
Going up one skirt size every ten years was associated with a 33 per cent greater risk of developing breast cancer after the menopause, while going up two skirt sizes in the same period was associated with a 77 per cent greater risk.
The lifetime risk of a woman developing breast cancer is one in eight.
Being overweight or obese was already known to be a risk factor for breast cancer but this study, published in BMJ