One would have thought that by now everyone
would be on the same page when it comes to the use of hormones for menopause, whether those hormones are to be used for amelioration of symptoms – hot
flushes, sleep disturbances, mood changes, etc – or whether the hormones are
pushed for lowering the risk of certain medical conditions that rise
dramatically in the senior years – osteoporosis, dementia, etc.
And that page that you’d think we’re all on
is simply this: while hormone “therapy” might improve certain menopausal
symptoms, particularly hot flushes, and while their use might lower the risks
of certain health problems later-in-life such as osteoporosis and colon cancer,
those benefits are more than offset in most women by the fact that hormones
clearly raise the risk of breast cancer, and the longer that women use hormones
and the higher the dose they use, the greater that risk of breast cancer.
But over the last few years, there’s been a
strong pushback in this no-hormones-for-you (shades of the Soup Nazi) attitude
from many doctors with the argument that 1) hormones are the only real
treatment for severe menopausal symptoms, and 2) the threat of breast cancer
from the use of hormones has been largely over-blown, and 3) the use of
estrogen alone without progesterone is not likely to raise the risk of breast
cancer.
So it’s important to note that in the
latest update from the famous and ongoing Nurses’ Health Study, the researchers
conclude that the use of any hormones at all raises the risk of breast
cancer, although the use of estrogen alone raised that risk only slightly while
combined estrogen and progesterone raised the risk substantially if used for
over 10 years.
Bottom line: all medications carry risks
and you must always ask yourself it the benefit – especially when that benefit
only applies to symptom relief – is worth those risks.
