A common question asked of me – “ is taking hormone replacement therapy ( HRT) safe when considering the risk of developing a breast cancer?”
The crucial aspect in medicine is weighing up risk against benefit. HRT is important in improving lifestyle qualities which decreased eostrogen in menopause creates – vaginal dryness, hot flashes, sleep disruption to name a few.
There has been NO statistical evidence apart from women with the BRCA gene mutation which proves that taking HRT increases the risk of developing a breast cancer .
In these cases, I tend to monitor women on HRT more closely. This translates to an annual basis with mammogram, breast ultrasound and clinical examination, to make sure that a breast cancer is diagnosed early if it was to occur.
IF you already have a diagnosed breast cancer which happens to grow faster in response to eostrogen , then I would strongly recommend not taking products with eostrogen including the oral contraceptive pill and HRT.
In contrast, LOCAL eostrogen creams used to improve vaginal dryness have been proven to be safe in patients being treated for breast cancer.
These facts are very important to those people experiencing the debilitating effects of menopause.