An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan 26, 2000 finally admitted that there was a strong link between hormone therapy (HRT) for menopause and breast cancer. The latest study looked at 43,000 women. Scientists observed that those on hormone replacement therapy were at much higher risk for breast cancer than women who were not taking hormones.
An even more surprising fact revealed was that combination drugs - Estrogen and Progestin (such as Premarin) could raise the risk of breast cancer as high as 40 percent as compared with a 20 percent higher risk in taking Estrogen alone.
About 1/3 of the women in the US in menopause are on hormone replacement therapy. The manufacturer of Premarin (a combination hormone) boasts that 9 million women are taking Premarin.
Progestin was added to estrogen in the 1980's when it was observed that women on estrogen had a much higher risk of uterine cancer.
Medicine has known about this risk of breast cancer for many years. In the 1930's a study which injected rats with estrogen, found that the lab animals came down with breast cancer. That study was repeated in Canada in the 1960's and is available for research on the web. I became interested in this when I entered menopause. Reading a nursing journal I was surprised to read a mention of the 'breast cancer - estrogen' link. Previously, I thought this link was not well established but medical professionals seemed totally aware of the link. I launched a year long study on the subject and wrote an article in 1996 (you can find this on my website). This was back when no one had heard about the estrogen/breast cancer link.
Like the National Enquirer has gotten into reminding us lately "you heard it here first" - my article showing that estrogen replacement therapy caused breast cancer first appeared on CINHEALTH in 1996. Now, with the publishing of the study in JAMA, medical professionals have finally admitted that link to the public.
Additional reading:
2. Medical
study on the link between HRT and breast cancer
Source:Reuters Health Service, JAMA, Jan 26,00
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