Different perspectives on research

A study was announced at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference linking taking menopause hormones for five years doubles the risk for breast cancer. Women who took estrogen and progestin pills for a couple of years had a greater chance of getting cancer. When they stopped taking them, their odds quickly improved, returning to a normal risk level roughly two years after quitting.

That sounds like a pretty clear synopsis. Take the pills, double your chance of developing breast cancer, stop taking the pills and your risk drops back to normal.

With that information most women would and have stopped taking hormones at menopause. In fact use of menopausal hormones dropped 70 percent when the first half of the research was announced in 2002.

Even so here is the response from Wyeth pharmaceuticals, manufacturers of Prempro; " Hormone therapy remains a good health care choice to relieve moderate to severe menopausal symptoms ” Yup' if it wasn't for the cancer it'd be perfect.

Now whether or not you choose to take hormones to deal with menopausal symptoms is a personal decision but remember they double your risk of developing cancer. Please remember, there are other treatment options that are not proven to cause cancer. Don't let your health decision be made by an advertising agency or a pharmaceutical company.