Here is another part of the story from the famed Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials which were prematurely discontinued when it was found that women using a combination of conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) and the progestin, medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) increased the likelihood of breast cancer and heart disease.
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February 1, 2011
Million Women Study: Here we go again…
On January 28th, the NY Times reported on a huge UK study – The Million Women Study, which reports on 1.3 million women in the UK. These new results were reported in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute and showed once again that the combination of estrogen and progestin caused an increased risk of breast cancer in women – findings that were similar to the results of the US Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study. However in this UK study, women who took estrogen only were shown to have an increased risk of breast cancer.
December 15, 2010
Weighing the risks and benefits of hormone therapy
Finally, authors who are willing to look at the “good news” results from the WHI and to look at the hormone that is actually causing the increase in breast cancer – it’s the progestin, not the estrogen. As the authors state this is old news, in the WHI it was clearly shown that women who took estrogen only did have a decreased risk of breast cancer. Even though as the authors state that overall the reduction did not reach clinical significance, the message that is important is that estrogen alone did not INCREASE the risk of breast cancer. The only group that showed an increased risk of breast cancer was the group where estrogens were combined with progestin (an artificial form of progesterone).
November 5, 2010
Taking Hormone Therapy? Don't Panic
I know that my patients and their friends are an internet and media savvy group. As such, I am sure they are aware of the recently released JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) article that dealt with the incidence of breast cancer in patients undergoing long-term follow-up in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) studies. This study was released several years ago after analyzing the results of giving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in the form of synthetic Progestins (progesterone-like molecules) and Estrogens (Premarin) derived from horse urine which are most definitely NOT the same as human estrogen. Ultimately the study was discontinued because of the statistically increased incidence of cardiovascular disease and uterine cancer. The most recent data analysis looks at the incidence of breast cancer and it's complications in women from the original study who were followed for an additional 4 years. The results showed that there was a significantly increased incidence of breast cancer as well as the metastatic consequences of those cancers in the women who were given the synthetic hormones.
November 2, 2010
Dr. Melinda Silva Discusses Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer Risk
In a new analysis of the women involved in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), researchers discovered that synthetic hormone replacement therapy used after menopause not only increased the risk of breast cancer in women, but also increased their risk of dying from the disease, when compared with women who did not receive treatment. These new findings were recently published in the October 20th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The WHI was a federally funded study that analyzed more than16,500 postmenopausal women who were given either hormone replacement therapy or a placebo.
October 28, 2010
Puzzled About Hormone Therapy?
Recently, a new analysis of the women involved in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) was published in October 20th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In the new report, researchers have found that hormone replacement therapy not only increased the risk of breast cancer in women, but also the likelihood that she would die from the disease. While these findings may seem alarming at first, it’s important that you don’t let the media scare you into believing that all hormones are bad for you.
October 26, 2010
Dr. Jennifer Landa Weighs in on the Hormone Therapy Debate
The media spotlight has honed in on hormone therapy once again, after the most recent findings from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) were published in last Wednesday’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and once again women all over the world were done a huge disservice.
October 25, 2010
Medical Mondays: The Safety of Bioidentical Hormone Therapy
There’s a lot of talk in the media regarding the dangers of hormone therapy. Apparently new studies have shown that hormone therapy is more dangerous than doctors originally thought. I’ve been using bioidentical hormones for 9 months now and I’m concerned that I might be putting myself at risk for breast cancer and heart disease. My doctor tells me that bioidentical hormones are different than the hormones that were used in the WHI trials and that there dangerous side effects aren’t as common because bioidentical hormones are naturally occurring. In your opinion, what makes bioidentical hormones safer and/or more effective than other forms of HRT?