Skip to main content

Ovarian Cancer and HRT?

Ovarian Cancer Found Near the Left Fallopian Tube
New Studies link ovarian cancer and hormone therapy published in the Lancet by the Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian Cancer. Although we know that progesterone is protective against uterine cancer, and estrogen alone may be protective against breast cancer, hormone therapy in menopause has never conclusively been linked to ovarian cancer until this study. In the study over 21,000 women were studied and the risk of ovarian cancer was an increased rate of of only one extra cancer per 1000 women (or less). It is still just an epidemiological study and more facts may come out with other types of studies. If you are taking hormone therapy, or considering hormone therapy we have a few bits of gyno advice:  First you need to establish your baseline risk of ovarian cancer with your gyno. Next you should monitor your risks. After that weigh your risks and benefits of any therapies with how they might impact on your overall risk of ovarian cancer, finally you should have any subtle symptoms monitored for actual ovarian cancer. In this case it meant having a laparoscopy that was able to establish the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer in a patient with vague abdominal discomfort. There are many ways to study your risk factors, including genetic testing , but we do not generally do extra ovarian cancer testing in women who have used menopausal hormone therapy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

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...

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

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...

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

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...