08/04/2025
HRT and breast cancer risk.
First of all, hormones don’t create any cancers. Cancer is a very complex disease that we are still figuring out how to prevent.
What we know so far about breast cancer is that 1 in 7 women will have it, that it usually takes about 7-10 years to develop (from one cell to a small lesion that can be identified in screenings) and that some things may increase the risk of developing it, including:
- being a woman
- getting older
- being overweight or obese
- drinking 2 glasses of alcohol every night
- not exercising regularly
- family history of breast cancer and ovarian cancer
- carrying genes that increase breast cancer risk
- some types of synthetic progesterone may increase the risk slightly (the increase in risk in this case is smaller than everything else mentioned above).
Ps. The body identical progesterone (Prometrium) haven’t shown any increase in risk of breast cancer so far.
You may never have breast cancer in your life and if you do you will most likely be cured with the many treatments we have at the moment if you screen your breasts regularly.
But you will go through peri/menopause for sure and will most likely have symptoms that affect your life and when you reach menopause you will have a huge increase in risk of heart attacks, strokes, osteoporosis and many chronic health conditions due to lack of hormones in your body.
Don’t make the fear of something you may never have prevent you from treating your symptoms and keeping you healthy for longer.
HRT is life!
Talk to q menopause specialists to know more!
