Now doctors clash over true HRT risk

Women urged to keep taking drugs as NICE opens review

DOCTORS last night encouraged women to keep taking HRT after the NHS watchdog announced it will review guidelines for menopause treatment.

A bombshell Oxford study yesterday revealed that hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer by a third – more than double previous estimates.

But it sparked a row as doctors claimed the ‘irresponsible’ research may cause women to abandon HRT treatment – reducing their overall health and increasing their risk of developing other life-threatening illnesses.

The study by Oxford University, published in the Lancet, prompted medical watchdog NICE to announce a review into its advice for the treatment of menopause symptoms.

A NICE spokesman said: ‘ We will be reflecting on this study’s findings and considering it in our final decision as to whether we will update our menopause guideline, a decision on which we will publish in due course.’

Existing NHS guidelines, last updated in 2015, encourage doctors to prescribe HRT and say twice as many women could benefit as currently do. Debate over the safety of HRT has raged since 2002, when its link to breast cancer first emerged.

The new study, which analysed results from 58 trials following more than 500,000 women, suggests one in 20 cases of breast cancer – around 3,000 a year in the UK – are caused by HRT.

It also found for the first time that risk persists for at least ten years after treatment is ceased.

But experts say the benefits of HRT in relieving debilitating symptoms – including night sweats, depression and hot flushes – outweigh the risks.

Yesterday Professor Michael Baum, a breast cancer specialist from University College London, led the backlash, saying he wanted to reassure HRT users.

He claimed the research was ‘appalling’ as it did not take into account the benefits of HRT in preventing other illnesses including dementia and osteoporosis.

He said: ‘I speak with the authority of someone who has looked after people with breast cancer for 40 years. My mother died of breast cancer, my sister has breast cancer. I have seen lots of women with breast cancer in a desperate state because they are denied HRT.

‘Some of the diseases that can be prevented by HRT carry a greater risk for women of dying than breast cancer. If you deny women HRT, they are more likely to die of problems like osteoporosis, fractures, heart disease, dementia.’

The oncologist added it was ‘totally inappropriate’ of the Oxford team to publish the study without referring to both the number of deaths from breast cancer caused by HRT, and the number of deaths that could be prevented by HRT.

Researchers said women aged 50 to 69 were 32 per cent more likely to get the disease if they had taken the most common form of hormone replacement therapy for at least five years.

It means for every 100 women who take oestrogen and daily progesterone, eight will get breast cancer rather than six. The risk is twice as high for those treated over a decade. Author Professor Valerie Beral said: ‘We are concerned many GPs say it’s not something you need to worry about. We want GPs to quote the reliable figures.’

Dr Julie Sharp, of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said: ‘Women have to know the risks of which type of HRT they take and how long they take it for to decide what’s right for them.’

And Dr Hilary Jones, a GP and presenter, said: ‘Let’s put this in perspective, is there a great risk? No. The risk of drinking two or three glasses of alcohol a day is an equivalent risk.’

Mr Haitham Hamoda, of the British Menopause Society, added that the findings were in keeping with the NICE guidelines showing ‘a small increase’ in breast cancer risk with HRT.

NEW ALERT OVER HRT LINKS TO BREAST CANCER From yesterday’s Mail

Yesterday, I got up early as usual, brushed my teeth and, as I have done for more than a decade, swallowed a little green pill before heading downstairs.

Over a coffee, I read the Mail’s front-page headline: ‘New alert Over Hrt Links to Breast Cancer.’

It jolted me — in view of the Hormone replacement therapy pill I had just taken.

the story said women aged 50 to 69 (that includes me) are 32 per cent more likely to get the disease if they have taken Hrt for five years.

and the danger is twice as high for patients on the treatment for a decade (me again). What’s more, the extra risk lasts for ten years or more after stopping Hrt.

I felt angry. Why hadn’t I been warned of the possible long-term effects when I started taking the pills on doctor’s advice?

I vaguely remember being told something about headaches and weight gain, but nothing about breast cancer or, as I’ve since discovered, an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Much of the research dates back to 2002, years before I started taking what I have always seen as my ‘magic’ green pill every day.

didn’t the pharmaceutical giants who mass-produce Hrt know of the potential side-effects? and, if so, why

JEREMY PAXMAN dismisses Boris Johnson as ‘a man you wouldn’t trust with your sister’. A bit rich coming from someone who left his partner of 35 years for a woman 29 years his junior.

weren’t women told? scandalously, it seems a generation of women have been cynically used as medical guinea pigs for decades.

Hrt has been sold to us as a failsafe panacea, transforming the lives of many women for the better. It would help us exercise more, improve our general health, aid weight-loss, offset osteoporosis, assist sleep, help prevent night sweats, a lack of sex drive and depression, and — we had thought — lower the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Have we been exploited as we tried to offset the problems of middle-age womanhood? Were we fools for using a treatment to stave off the effects of ageing? Only time will tell what the long-term effects of pumping our bodies full of prescription hormones will have on our longevity.

Of course, many will assess the risks and decide they are outweighed by the benefits, as is their right.

But after this report, I made an appointment with my GP to learn more about the risks of Hrt. I’m sure countless others have, too.

We may be the most educated generation of women in history, but I fear we could be the most deluded.