Adding to evidence that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can potentially raise a woman's risk of breast cancer, a new US study links recent, long-term HRT with a heightened risk of the disease.
Researchers found that HRT with estrogen alone or estrogen-plus-progestin was associated with a 70% increase in breast cancer risk when the therapy was taken for 5 years within the 6 years preceding the cancer diagnosis.
The findings build on previous research showing a link between long-term HRT and breast cancer and help clear up the question of whether combination HRT and estrogen-only HRT carry similar risks.
In addition, the study of about 1,300 women found that HRT use had a particular link to lobular breast cancer, the form of the disease that begins in the breast's lobules. It is far less common than ductal breast cancer, which begins in the milk ducts.
Women who were recent, long-time users of HRT faced a three-fold risk of lobular cancer compared with women who never used HRT.
These women also had about a 50% increase in the risk of ductal cancer.
JAMA February 13, 2002;287:734-741
After all these years of estrogen hype it is becoming more and more clear to traditional medicine that the benefits of estrogen don't outweigh the risks.
Estrogen has long been proven to not help with heart disease nor prevent Alzheimer's.
So that leaves us with osteoporosis and hot flash relief.
It has been my experience that black cohosh works far more effectively for hot flash relief.
So that leaves us with osteoporosis. Well, a study published less than a year ago in JAMA showed that estrogen was not helpful to prevent against hip fractures.
Fortunately one can take vitamin D, K, omega three fats and plenty of vegetables and exercise to address osteoporosis.
One can only logically conclude that there is no reason for a woman to take hormone replacement therapy, unless her ovaries have been removed or she is interested in getting breast cancer.
It is important to make a distinction between women who have had their ovaries removed and those that have not. Those that have will likely benefit from low dose natural human estrogen replacement while those who still have ovaries will likely not.
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