In my “Estrogen Matters” deep dive looking at breast cancer, he cites many studies to show there is little evidence to show hormones cause breast cancer. I like science and studies. There is
truth. And he throws many of them at us in his book. I understand being a skeptic- you can almost always find multiple studies where one contradicts another. But as you get to bigger numbers, from different institutions, you will see a trend.
Studies he cites:
- 1986 epidemiology, National Cancer Institute. No increased risk of breast cancer for women on Premarin, even those who took for 20 years.
- 1988 Meta-analysis of 22 studies. No statistical association between estrogen replacement and breast cancer.
- 1991 epidemiology Julie Palmer. No increased risk of breast cancer in Premarin users even after 15 years of use.
- 1991 Metanalysis of 28 studies by biostatistics No association between estrogen replacement and breast cancer.
- 1992: First randomized double blind placebo controlled trial. 168 patients. HRT vs. placebo followed for 2o years. Findings? 11.5% of women on placebo got breast cancer, NONE of the HRT women did.
- 1995 NEJM first results from Nurses Health study of 122,000 nurses who had taken HRT at any point had no increased risk of breast cancer
- 1996 prospective study of 422,000 women American Cancer Society, those who had taken estrogen replacement therapy had a small but decreased risk of dying from breast cancer
- 1997 epidemiology 41,000 women in Iowa ages 55-69 to see if HRT increased breast cancer risk. It did not.
So in the late 80s/early 1990s, the recommendations of the British medical Journal and New England Journal of Medicine recommended “all postmenopausal women be considered candidates for HRT and be educated about its risks and benefits.”
Feel clubbed over the head? I did. It made me wonder WHAT HAPPENED to make people label HRT as evil? That comes soon- from a giant study called the Women’s Health Initiative. Originally it showed no increased risk of breast cancer in post menopausal women who had been on estrogen, even after 7 years follow up.
But it changed its tune later, causing the estrogen replacement to plummet.