If a few decades ago medicine in general wasn’t quite bullet proof, the work of scientists is now able to pin point more precise the factors that put women at risk of breast cancer. One particular treatment that women in a huge number have been taking has been linked to be more risky than imagined. A new study shows that hormone based treatments are linked to breast cancer.
For most women reaching menopause is not that straightforward. Although it affects each women differently, menopause symptoms are not at all that easy to manage. While some women will never get to experience a hot flash, some of the other 33 menopause symptoms are bound to be challenging to survive through.
The combo of hormones that spike during menopause, estrogen, testosterone and progesterone, generate symptoms such as joint pain, dizziness, hot flashes, crashing fatigue, breast tenderness, depression, mood swings and night sweats, to name a few.
Living through such an ordeal is a challenge for many women but thanks to medicine there are ways that might make it easier. The hormone based treatment has been ruled for quite some time to be an effective way of putting the hormones back on track. However, a new study comes to show that the treatment is in fact a risk factor for breast cancer.
Although the study pertains to the extended intake of hormone based treatments such as pills that combine estrogen and progestin, the findings are enough to make a lot of women think twice as to finding relief from menopause symptoms.
This Sunday, at a cancer conference in Chicago, the findings have been discussed by specialists in the matter. Dr. Wendy Chen with Boston’s Women’s Hospital, said: “There’s a continued increase in risk with longer durations of use and there does not appear to be a plateau”.
Since the study is preliminary, the findings are ruled to be a starting point for extended research in the matter. However, doctors do recommend the lowest dosage intake for the shortest amount of time. According to the research, using any kind of hormones for 10 years is going to boost the risk of developing breast cancer.
Meanwhile, as medicines aren’t exactly ruled to be safe at this point, consider a more natural way to deal with menopausal symptoms, such as a change in diet and exercising more.
