During menopause, the female body changes the hormonal balance so that the estrogen level drops and progesterone almost disappears. This can lead to symptoms such as hot flashes, sweating, bleeding between periods or incontinence. Hormone replacement therapies reduce these symptoms but increase the risk of breast cancer.
An international team of researchers has therefore summarized 58 studies in the journal “The Lancet” on how which form of replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer.
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500,000 data evaluated
The research team evaluated data from 500,000 women. Among them were women who had taken hormones for various periods of time, but also some without replacement therapy. A total of 100,000 women around the age of 65 developed breast cancer. Taking a closer look, each hormone treatment increases the risk to varying degrees:
- Without hormone therapy , 63 out of 1000 women of normal weight between the ages of 50 and 69 developed breast cancer.
- In a five-year treatment with estrogen and progestin (daily ), there was one additional incidence of breast cancer for every 50 women.
- If the progestin was only taken in phases, there was one additional case of breast cancer for every 70 women.
- When estrogen was taken alone, there was only one extra case for every 200 women.
Risk factors for breast cancer
The results of the studies were independent of familial predisposition or cigarette and alcohol consumption. Among other things, the risk in overweight women, who already had an increased risk of breast cancer, increased only slightly as a result of hormone therapy. Starting therapy later, around the age of 60, also reduced the risk.
Commenting on the study, also published in The Lancet , Joanne Kotsopoulos of Women’s College Hospital in Toronto explains how the increased risk might come about: “In studies we see that the increase in breast cancer risk that occurs with age is somewhat milder after menopause. Simply put, hormone therapy may actually keep women in a pre-menopausal state.” As a result, they did not benefit from the reduced risk of breast cancer after menopause.”
Find the right treatment
Patients should be informed about the new findings and discuss the treatment method with their doctor. It should also always be checked whether the medication can be reduced or phased out, since symptoms are sometimes alleviated earlier.
