A few encouraging facts:
- A study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
(1984;150:119-128) showed increased survival rates in patients
given estrogen after being treated for breast cancer. This is
surprising. The study was done on women who were just so
miserable without their estrogen replacement that they preferred the cancer
risk to the side effects of low estrogen.
- A study in American Journal of Epidemiology (1989; 130:221-228) also
showed increased survival in women with breast cancer given
estrogen after being treated for the cancer.
- In the present PremPro study, the actual average life expectancy of the patient
was the same whether they took the drug or not.
- Obesity after menopause increases the chance of breast cancer (so
if you're not over weight then you've got less chance).
- Obesity before menopause decreased the rate of breast cancer (so best
scenario would be that you were over weight before menopause and then lost
your weight afterwards).
- Progesterone alone after breast cancer does not seem to increase
recurrence rates (so is probably safe)--- Annals of Surgery; volume 228,
No.5, Nov. 1998. In this study, of Prempro, it was the patients who
got estrogen and progesterone (not the ones who got only estrogen) who
seemed to have the most problems. Cancer can be like a fire--you may
need more than one thing to get it started. This is an important
principle that applies to my proposed solution to the problem.
- Premenopausal women do NOT usually have their ovaries removed (oohporectomy)
when diagnosed with breast cancer...so they continue to "take estrogen
and progesterone" from their ovaries.
- Women who are taking estrogen when they develop breast cancer usually live
longer than those who develop breast cancer and are not taking estrogen.
All of this is not to say that you should run out and down a bottle of PremPro
if you have breast cancer. It is to say that this is a complicated process
with many factors involved so be careful about coming to major conclusions from
this one study of PremPro.
Please go back to core explanation for what I
think you should do to make your estrogen replacement safe.