Considering how much news comes out on the consequences of taking conventional hormone replacement therapy, I think it is important to stay abreast of the latest research on the subject. Ovarian cancer and asthma are just two more reasons to choose natural hormone therapy methods, like bioidentical hormone replacement.
A study of nearly a million women showed that even if hormone replacement therapy is taken for less than a year, and even if its low dose, it brings a significant increase in ovarian cancer risk. Thats irrespective of dosing frequency (daily vs. cyclic), mode of delivery (skin patch, pills, vaginal preparation, or hormone intrauterine device), and whether the formulas estrogen is countered by progesterone. The cause-and-effect relationship between hormone replacement therapy and ovarian cancer was confirmed by the finding that after a woman has been off of it for two years, her increased ovarian cancer risk drops back to her original risk level. Ovarian cancer remains the deadliest of a womans hormone-sensitive cancers.
As for asthma, it has been known for several years that conventional hormone replacement therapy significantly increases a womans odds of developing asthma after menopause, even if she has no respiratory allergies. In a recent study of nearly 60,000 asthma-free women entering menopause, taking conventional hormone replacement not only increased their risk of developing asthma by 20 percent, but that risk rose to 54 percent if the hormone therapy consisted of estrogen without progesterone. And, if a woman already had some form of allergies before starting estrogen replacement therapy, her risk of developing asthma went up by a whopping 86 percent.
All the more reason to use natural hormone replacement therapy, or safe, effective alternatives for menopause releif, like black cohosh and the many other nutrients I discuss in this blog!