STUDY: Supplemental Estrogen Can Prevent Breast Cancer.

In recent years, women have heard only bad news about the use of estrogen and progestin to ease symptoms of menopause. In 2002, researchers halted a major government study of so-called combination therapy, part of the Women’s Health Initiative, when women taking these hormones were shown to have a higher risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke. Frightened women abandoned hormones in droves. But now a controversial new review of data suggests some good news: certain women who take estrogen alone, without progestin, to treat menopause symptoms may actually be protected from breast cancer. . . . For instance, among 8,500 women with no family history of the disease, use of estrogen lowered breast cancer risk by 32 percent, compared with similar women taking a placebo. Among the 7,600 women with no history of benign breast disease, like lumps or cysts, those taking estrogen had a 43 percent lower risk of breast cancer.

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