WHAT’S THE TRUTH ABOUT HRT AND BREAST CANCER?
NATURAL hormones are the solution — indeed, in my personal and professional experience, I have found no conventional or alternative therapies that can restore your hormone balance l i ke natural hormones can.
Natural hormones, which have actually been available to doctors for the past 70 years, are derived from plants. Because their chemical structure is identical to our own hormones (which is why they are called ‘bio-identical’), their action i s gentle and effective, and, I believe, they provide more protection from the dangers of HRT.
Bio-identical oestrogen is made from soy and yam oils. Bio-identical progesterone (sometimes called micronised progesterone), is derived from yams.
These natural hormones are formulated by pharmaceutical IN 2002, a very large and influential U.S. government-led study found that conventional HRT could i ncrease the risks of heart disease, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer.
Perhaps not surprisingly, this led to the tens of millions of women around the world immediately stopping their conventional HRT.
Concerns were raised again last year when a major review in the Lancet of more than 50 studies linked certain types of HRT to a raised risk of ovarian cancer, compared with women who weren’t on the therapy.
Hormones are certainly very powerful molecules, but all these studies are based on the use of synthetic hormones in women who had already been through
t he menopause more than ten years before, and many experts in women’s health — on both sides of the Atlantic — are convinced the risks have been overplayed.
Furthermore, these studies suggest that HRT may increase the risk of breast cancer, blood clot or stroke, but only by one extra case in 1,000 women, and the latest guidelines from the British Menopause Society (a specialist society of the Royal College of GPs) state the benefits of HRT outweigh the risks.
But before we jump to the conclusion that hormones cause cancer, let us remember that the pregnant woman with her very high levels of hormones such as oestrogen does not often get cancer. In fact, her hormones can provide protection from illness. Pregnant women don’t just glow — they are supercharged with immune protection.
The thousands of medical professionals who, like me, now work solely with bio-identical hormones, are convinced that these natural formulations are completely safe. And so are their patients.
But balance is key. It is high levels of unopposed oestrogen — whether this is oestrogen from exposure to chemicals, radiation, synthetic HRT or even supplements, such as isoflavones derived from soy, taken without someone knowledgeable supervising — that increase a woman’s chances of developing breast cancer.
By ‘unopposed’, I mean with no balancing progesterone; I think using balanced regimens of oestrogen and progesterone are safer.
I have been taking bio-identical hormones for 19 years, and have treated thousands of patients with them. And, to the best of my k nowledge, none, not one, has gone on to develop any form of cancer while under my care.