Hi Clara,
I just did a quick google search and found this:
Postmenopausal hormone treatment (hormone 'replacement' therapy): ...Recent clinical trials have examined postmenopausal treatment with estrogen and progesterone and found that it leads to an increase in the risk of breast cancer and is unlikely to prevent or benefit heart and blood vessel disease. Major health organizations have recommended discontinuation of its use for health promotion and and most disease prevention purpoes.
Source:
http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/factshee...trogen.cfm
And on another website:
Key Points
* Much of the evidence about risks and benefits of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) comes from two randomized clinical trials that were conducted as part of the Women’s Health Initiative.
* Although MHT provides short-term benefits, such as relief from hot flashes and vaginal dryness,
several health concerns are associated with its use, including increased risk for certain cancers.
*
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently advises women to use MHT for the shortest time and at the lowest dose possible to control the symptoms of menopause.
5. What are the health risks of MHT?
Before the WHI studies began, it was known that MHT with estrogen alone increased the risk of endometrial cancer in women with an intact uterus. It was for this reason that, in the WHI trials, women randomly assigned to receive hormone therapy took estrogen plus progestin if they had a uterus and estrogen alone if they didn’t have one.
Research from the WHI studies has shown that MHT is associated with the following harms:
*
Urinary incontinence. Use of estrogen plus progestin increased the risk of urinary incontinence (1).
*
Dementia. Use of estrogen plus progestin doubled the risk of developing dementia among postmenopausal women age 65 and older (5).
*
Stroke, blood clots, and heart attack. Women who took either combined hormone therapy or estrogen alone had an increased risk of stroke, blood clots, and heart attack (1, 3). For women in both groups, however, this risk returned to normal levels after they stopped taking the medication (2, 4).
*
Breast cancer. Women who took estrogen plus progestin were more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer (6). The breast cancers in these women were larger and more likely to have spread to the lymph nodes by the time they were diagnosed (6). The number of breast cancers in this group of women increased with the length of time that they took the hormones and decreased after they stopped taking the hormones (7).
These studies also showed that both combination and estrogen-alone hormone use made mammography less effective for the early detection of breast cancer (6, 8). Women taking hormones had more repeat mammograms to check on abnormalities found in a screening mammogram and more breast biopsies to determine whether abnormalities detected in mammograms were cancer (6, 8).
The rate of death from breast cancer among those taking estrogen plus progestin was 2.6 per 10,000 women per year, compared with 1.3 per 10,000 women per year among those taking the placebo (9). The rate of death from any cause after a diagnosis of breast cancer was 5.3 per 10,000 women per year among women taking combined hormone therapy, compared with 3.4 per 10,000 women per year among those taking the placebo (9).
*
Lung cancer. Women who took combined hormone therapy had the same risk of lung cancer as women who took the placebo (10). However, among those who were diagnosed with lung cancer, women who took estrogen plus progestin were more likely to die of the disease than those who took the placebo.
There were no differences in the number of cases or the number of deaths from lung cancer among women who took estrogen alone compared with those among women who took the placebo (11).
*
Colorectal cancer. In the initial study report, women taking combined hormone therapy had a lower risk of colorectal cancer than women who took the placebo (1). However, the colorectal tumors that arose in the combined hormone therapy group were more advanced at detection than those in the placebo group...
Source:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/facts...l-hormones
But you are right, also phytoestrogens should be taken in moderate doses. It might take longer to grow breasts, but combined with massage and NB it's a safer way to increase breast size.
Could you please show me the website which states that the above study has been called into question lately? Thanks.
