In 2004 a large scale study called the Women’s Health Initiative was abruptly stopped because of an increased relative risk of breast cancer in women taking combined hormone therapy. (Combined means oestrogen and progesterone). This lead to many women immediately halting their hormone therapy and a change in the referring practices of medical doctors. In the years since, the dramatic halting of the study has come under scrutiny and the media has been somewhat at fault. What the communication of the study results failed to state was that the increased risk was ‘relative’. This means that although, yes, combined hormone therapy may increase your risk of developing breast cancer, so too does, smoking, consuming over 2 std alcoholic drinks a day, lack of physical exercise, menopause after 55 yrs, your first period before 12 yrs and more. This is not to say that hormone replacement is completely safe, but it isn’t necessarily the boogey man we’ve all made it out to be.
The data suggests that there is a ‘window of opportunity’ where hormone replacement can be beneficial for your health, in protecting your cardiovascular health, brain health and bone health, whilst after a certain time it can actually become detrimental. This window seems to be the first 5 years of menopause.