HRT – The Latest Developments
In case you haven’t heard HRT is back ladies!
It feels pretty strange writing that because for many years I like most health professionals was of the opinion that HRT was a big contributor to Breast Cancer and should be avoided at all costs.
However, new research paints a very different picture and I want to help spread the word because strangely the media don’t seem to be as keen to publish the good news as they were the bad back in 2002 when a part of the Women’s Health Initiative study was stopped due to links with an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke and blood clots.
This caused panic and confusion, fuelled by shock tactics and scary headlines from the media. Not only in HRT users but in doctors too, users fell from 2 to 1 million between 2003 -2007, plunging many women back into full and fierce menopause with worse symptoms than before, due to their estrogen levels being even lower than when they started.
In 2007 investigators of the WHI published subsequent findings which stated that certain safety risks were overestimated and that new findings showed additional benefits for those initiating HRT in the 50-59 age group or those less than 10 years past menopause, including a lower risk of heart disease or death from any cause.
More recently in 2020, the long term data was published and the results look even more promising with benefits across all areas.
As someone whose mum has survived Breast Cancer twice at 50 & 65 and I was still dubious, so I have done some extra digging because, to be honest Cancer scares the crap out of me!
Let’s break down the important numbers…
In a group of women aged 50>59, per 1000 women who have not taken HRT, there will be 23 cases of breast cancer.
In a group of the same age range who HAVE taken HRT there will be 26, so 3 more.
When it comes to breast cancer the different risk factors for HRT have been graded in terms of their relative strength.
Obesity increases your risk by a factor of 17!
Alcohol (2 units per day), the Combined Pill and HRT each increase your risk by a factor of 3. Smoking by a risk factor of 1.
And regular exercise reduces your risk by a factor of 5!
How many women are there who are overweight, maybe drinking and smoking, but are too scared to take HRT because of the associated risks?
Obesity is actually a much bigger risk factor for breast cancer than HRT!
The increased risk of breast cancer on HRT is similar to drinking 2 units of alcohol per day!
If like me your mother had breast cancer between the ages of 50 and 70, and she is your only close family member with breast cancer, your breast cancer risk is population risk, and this is not a reason to withhold HRT.
So what does this all mean?
The peri-menopausal women I work with all find themselves feeling less symptomatic, happier and lighter when they implement the Mind Body Reset Blueprint, however, there are few who still experience sleepless nights, anxiety and hot flushes and for these ladies, HRT can be the answer.
I have always said never say never, I knew I was yet to walk in those shoes and whilst HRT still isn’t my first port of call with symptomatic clients, if they are “controlling the controllable” (ie followed the MBR blueprint) and are still experiencing symptoms then maybe its time to get some hormonal support.
I have some resources below so you can do your own research – this is always a difficult topic because we are dealing with each of our own bio-individuality and so there are many grey areas as not one size fits all.
My advice to you is to do your own research.
This is a good resource: https://thebms.org.uk/publications/tools-for-clinicians/
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