HRT Linked to Breast Cancer Death Risk

A new study not only confirms the Women’s Health Initiative 2002 finding that hormone replacement therapy increases breast cancer risk, it also suggests that women who undergo HRT are more likely to die from the disease.

This “new” information is contradictory to what many medical experts believed to be true – that although HRT increases breast cancer risk, the type of breast cancer involved is easier to treat and less invasive.

WHI Study Results

After the WHI study debunked the theory that HRT in the form of synthetic progestin and estrogen taken in tandem could protect women from heart disease and other age related issues, women began to stop taking the supplements.  This was in large part due to the breast cancer association – and in response, breast cancer cases dropped sharply.

The current study, which is being reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicates that study participants who underwent hormone replacement therapy were twice as likely to die from breast cancer as those who took a placebo.

Pfizer, which manufactures PremPro, is still standing behind the supplement, insisting that the “lowest effective dose for the shortest period of time” is the proper, and ultimately safe, protocol when undergoing HRT.  

Synthetic versus Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy

Although the controversy surrounding HRT has been broiling for nearly a decade, some anti-aging specialists contend that the problem with traditional HRT is the fact that the hormones prescribed in formulations such as Prempro are synthetic.

According to Dr. Corwin Petty, anti-aging specialist in Northwest Arkansas, bio-identical hormones are not only safe, they constitute “a legitimate and important life-enhancing, life-extending medical application.”

Per Dr. Petty’s website (www.championsfamilyclinic.com), the term “bioidentical” refers to the fact that the replacement hormone “is identical to that of the hormone naturally found in the human body.”  In order to fully replace declining hormones, the chemical structure must be identical to those which were originally “produced and present in the human body.”

In this way, according to the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, bio-identical hormones provide the benefits of traditional HRT without the associated risks.