Hormone Replacement Therapy News
"Study: Estrogen Plus Testosterone Therapy Raises Breast Cancer Risk"
July 28, 2006
New research indicates that a combination of estrogen and testosterone hormone replacement therapy used to treat symptoms of menopause significantly increases the risk of breast cancer. Additionally, a second report found that alternative treatments to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are not effective.
The First Study
The study published in the July issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, evaluated data on 121,700 women who were part of a Nurses’ Health Study. Researcher Rulla M. Tamimi of Brigham, Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School and her colleagues analyzed the long-standing effects of estrogen-plus-testosterone therapy.
They conducted a 24-year follow-up of the women in the Nurses study and found 4,610 cases of breast cancer.
Researchers reported that women who took a combination of estrogen and testosterone therapy had a 77 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer compared to those who never took hormone replacement therapy.
Additionally, the risk linked to estrogen-plus-testosterone therapy was significantly higher than the risk associated with estrogen-plus-progestin therapy (58 percent) and estrogen therapy (15 percent).
The heightened risk of breast cancer associated with testosterone therapy may be because enzymes in the tissue of the breasts transform testosterone to estradiol—an estrogen-like hormone that has been linked to the development of breast cancer.
“We have always been hesitant about using it [testosterone], and this [study] re-enforces it,” said Dr. Hugh Taylor, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine.
Currently in the U.S., there is only one combination estrogen-plus-testosterone hormone replacement therapy option available. However, these treatments are predicted to increase in the next few years, according to the study.
The Second Study
A second report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that alternative or complementary hormone replacement therapies for symptoms of menopause are not effective.
Researchers analyzed 70 previous studies of alternative therapies and found that there remains insufficient evidence that proves alternative therapies relieve menopause-related symptoms. Furthermore, experts say these therapies work mainly as a placebo effect.
“There is a significant placebo effect in almost anything that is used for the management of menopause,” said Dr. Anne Nedrow, the study’s lead researcher. “There is a lack of any evidence that of the millions and millions of dollars spent on alternative therapies that anything really works.
However, Nedrow believes there is no harm in using alternative therapies and recommends black cohosh or soy supplements.
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Study: Estrogen Plus Testosterone Therapy Raises Breast Cancer Risk
"HRT Increases Breast Cancer Risk"
"Hormone replacement therapy risks still argued"
If you are currently taking hormone replacement therapy,
the combination of estrogen and progestin, you are advised
to contact your doctor IMMEDIATELY
for hormone replacement therapy alternatives.
For more information on hormone replacement therapy alternatives
and your legal rights, please
contact a hormone replacement therapy lawyer.
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