Important Hormone Therapy Update

Here’s the latest on what you need to know! 

The new 7 Million NIH Women’s study has shown that American women 65 and older, taking estrogen, have less cancers (REDUCED risk of 33% for breast, ovarian, uterine, lung and colorectal) and less heart disease. And live longer! Women on estrogens (and natural progesterone) die 20% less prematurely from all causes.

Moral of this story that many of your doctors may yet know, as they are busy seeing patients, not reading the new science, is listed below. 

Hormone Therapy Study Updates: 

• Estrogen is “breast protective” against getting breast cancer.
• Both bioidentical estrogen and horse estrogens (conjugated equine horse estrogen) are breast protective, but natural estrogens protect statistically better.
• Both natural and synthetic hormones are cognition protective, against all neurodegenerative diseases, but natural hormones protect statistically better (reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s by 79% in the University of Arizona study).
• Even soy has now been shown to be “brain, cognition and breast” protective.
• Natural progesterone does “not” increase the risk of breast cancer and in some studies it has been shown to be breast cancer protective).
• You can initiate hormones safely at “any age” if you have a hormone savvy practitioner.
• There is no one way to test hormones. Many docs track hormones by various platforms.
• Hormones influence how we feel, think, have energy or not, have muscle mass or not, fight a “gut” or not, and how we sleep. Ideally try to work with someone that treats the “patient” more than the “laboratory”.
• Estrogen and progesterone do NOT drive breast cancer. Especially in healthy women.

Effects of Hormone Therapy on survival, cancer, cardiovascular 1 and dementia risks in 7 million menopausal women over age 65: [a retrospective observational study medRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.25.22275595; this version posted May 26, 2022].