Skip to main content

Breast Cancer and Estrogen Post Menopausal Hormone Therapy Explained

Image
By
Breast cancer and estrogen link will never be completely clear, in part because we know there are different types of genetically distinct breast cancers. Editorials and commentary from journals and medical news sites have been flying to try to explain the findings that sometimes we find that taking estrogen during menopausal therapy treatment causes breast cancer, and yet in some studies breast cancer is actually prevented by prescription menopausal estrogen use! The current thinking is that 5 years or less of hormone replacement therapy in menopause is safe. It's important to remember that for you to understand  your individual breast cancer risk multiple facts have to be considered including, your own 'risk-benefit ratio' (the risks you may have of one illness off-set by benefits of the therapy), what other hormones and medications you have taken, how long you have taken what you took previously, and how long you have been off! Your gyno also will consider what your mammogram looks like, how many lumps you have had, your family history, and whether you have had children, and whether your have breast fed these children when thinking about your risk-benefit ratio. And that's just to name a few of the considerations according to V. Craig Jordan, PhD, DSc, FMedSci.,  Dr. Jordan, scientific director and vice chairman of oncology at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center of Georgetown University, Washington, DC. and he has been quoted to say that women who haven't taken estrogen for a long time could have natural cell death of breast cancer cells induced by estrogen use. Most breast cancer cells die if you initially take away estrogen, in women not permanently cured of any breast cancer cells in their body cells will emerge (like getting resistant infection!) that will grow with just a bit of estrogen use. After a given time period when cells once deprived of estrogen, these cells will  respond differently to estrogen. Apparently the same phenomenon is seen with the anti-breast cancer drugs themselves, not just estrogen, so that we see this same response to medications like tamoxifen. So if you are confused, no worries, it's confusing, and important to gab with your gyno on what is going to be best for you.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments and questions. WE hope you will buy our book, https://www.gynogab.com/shop This blog is not intended to replace medical care, but is informational only. We hope you will become a follower or visit Womens Health Practice. We offer a variety of unique services including MonaLisa Touch, Coolsculpting, Labiaplasty, and Gynecoloigic Clinical Research Trials. For more information on menopause see

Popular posts from this blog

Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

By
Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously.  It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods  Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...
311 comments
Read more

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

By
If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...
647 comments
Read more

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

By
Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...
199 comments
Read more