Posted on 12/13/2008 9:49:47 PM PST by neverdem
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO: Taking menopause hormones for five years doubles the risk for breast cancer, according to a new analysis of a big federal study that reveals the most dramatic evidence yet of the dangers of these still-popular pills.
Even women who took estrogen and progestin pills for as little as a couple of years had a greater chance of getting cancer. And when they stopped taking them, their odds quickly improved, returning to a normal risk level roughly two years after quitting.
Collectively, these new findings are likely to end any doubt that the risks outweigh the benefits for most women.
It is clear that breast cancer rates plunged in recent years mainly because millions of women quit hormone therapy and fewer newly menopausal women started on it, said the study's leader, Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
"It's an excellent message for women: You can still diminish risk (by quitting), even if you've been on hormones for a long time," said Dr. Claudine Isaacs of Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. "It's not like smoking where you have to wait 10 or 15 years for the risk to come down."
Study results were given Saturday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
They are from the Women's Health Initiative, which tested estrogen and progestin pills that doctors long believed would prevent heart disease, bone loss and many other problems in women after menopause. The main part of the study was stopped in 2002 when researchers saw surprisingly higher risks of heart problems and breast cancer in hormone users.
Since then, experts have debated whether these risks apply to women who start on hormones when they enter menopause, usually in their 50s, and take them for shorter periods of time. Most of the women...
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Cancer conference: http://www.sabcs.org
Hormone study: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/estro_pro.htm
Search "Study ties hormone use to breast cancer" on the net. You'll verify that it's the correct author. I know AP often makes links to articles like this. It's one of the rare qualities in AP that's good.
I have heard that there is a huge difference between oral, synthetic (or made from pregnant mares’ urine as in Premarin) estrogen and bio-identical estrogen that is NOT taken through the digestive system but is usually a gel for the skin.
Synthetic and oral estrogens are fairly dangerous but bio-identicals might even prevent cancer. I don’t have a link right now but there is a whole new type of endocrinologist today that is focused on well-being and health through proper replacement of bio-identical hormones for men and women. It’s important NOT to go with these MSM total indictments that throw out the baby with the bathwater.
For example, there is a hormone I never heard of that if restored to normal levels in an elderly man who is hard of hearing, will bring back his hearing enough to make a huge change in the quality of his life.
The key to remember is that the hormones must be bio-identical and must bypass the liver.
Estrogen and estrogen mimicing hormones/look-alikes cause cancer. Doctors (MD’s) in an not-to-be-names facility prescribed an estrogen cream for a problem my mother had. She developed cancer from that. She died.
Many, many similar case histories that point to estrogen or to estrogen-like substances support estrogen as being a cancer causitive substance. It is not just breast cancer, it is many other cancers.
YES!!!! I am going to write an article....I am so tired of the mis-information out there. Bio-ID hormones are VERY different than the PREMARIN’s....and taking a pill means you SPIKE your hormone temporarily (and probably dangerously) while bio-ID hormones in cream form applied in the vaginal area are near normal....plus you need to take a break from the estrogen, testosterone, etc...for 5 days a month....kinda like a normal estes.....
And, YES....I know what I’m talking about....my doc is the guy who invented bio-ID hormones in cream form....and is keeping me alive...and active.
So sorry to hear about your Mother....I have a question...was estrogen the ONLY hormone she was taking? Out of balance hormones can cause MANY problems....and when you don’t balance estrogen....well....you know....
I fit no high risk category at all: no family history of breast cancer, no birth control pills, no hormones, had my first children in my twenties, had five of them and nursed every single one of them for over a year, never had an abortion, ate a good diet, drank purified water, exercised, and I still got breast cancer.
One in seven women will get breast cancer. Not all breast cancers are alike either, there are different cell types. I have no idea why I got it. Still in remission but the rest of your life you have a guillotine over your head, wondering when your tumor markers might spike again.
So, bottom line, I don’t trust most of the studies out there studying why women get breast cancer. What really gets me are the ones trying to make women feel guilty if they don’t breastfeed, telling them they are more likely to get cancer if they bottle feed. Well I nursed five children for years and years and still got it. Personally I think those studies are just a bunch of crock.
So just live your life, put your faith and trust in God. That’s all any of us can do. All these studies just drive you crazy if you pay too much attention to them.
“...was estrogen the ONLY hormone she was taking?”
Yes.
My wife developed breast cancer after going on estrogen replacement. She did not take it orally, but wore a patch which delivered the hormone. My understanding was that estrogen does not necessarily cause breast cancer, but feeds it. So, if any cancer cells are lurking, they will not die off but will be fed by the estrogen and will develop into full-blown cancer.
75% of cancers spread to the bones eventually.
I take Arimidex but it causes bone pain and arthritis. So I take the supplement MSM to help that. I really recommend that to any post-treatment breast cancer patient who is getting bone pain from the post-treatment drugs they keep you on for five years. It’s a common complaint with these drugs. Yeah, it might reduce your risk of recurrence but your bones start cracking and just walking can be painful. That’s what people don’t understand about breast cancer: there are long term side effects that result. When your treatment is over it’s still not over for you. They will always look on you as a sick patient.
Bump for tomorrow...
and making lots of money off you. Hormones are hormones.
Oral contraceptives or contraceptive patches, increase the risk for gynecological cancer like smoking increases the risk lung cancer, coronary artery disease, etc. I'm sorry to read about your wife.
Yeah, sure. Testosterone, estrogen, insulin, all the same.
bookmark
the so called bioidentical hormones carry the same risks as the pharmaceutical hormones. But you knew that, you were just demonstrating your advanced medical knowledge.
She does not take arrimidex, and stopped taking tamoxifen. While taking tamoxifen, she had such coughing spells she could no longer function. We do some natural holistic things to keep her well.
Funny how doctors who prescribe hormone replacement think the rewards outweigh the risks, but you will not find an oncologist who advocates their use.
That’s odd because I consider I did better physically when on Tamoxifan instead of Femara or Arimidex. He’s had me on all three. I didn’t have the nasty bone pain on Tamoxifan, my counts were normal, no heart troubles like I had with the Herceptin (only took 3 doses of that and had a heart attack), but since being changed to Femara and then Arimidex I get constant bone pain and my counts remain slightly elevated.
I wish he HAD kept me on Tamoxifan!
More knowledgeable than someone who considers horse hormones and human hormones the same, yes.
Hey, sweetie....you have NO idea what happened to me. I’ll pay the money so I can walk, cross country ski, and jump around like a 30 year old.....the RA doc just wanted to put me on $10,000 a year drugs that would require OTHER drugs to counteract the EFFECTS of those drugs.....
depends on the TYPE of hormones....
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