For postmenopausal women who stop their hormone replacement therapy (HRT), there is good news, bad news and surprising news from a new study that followed women for about two and a half years after they stopped the regimen.
On the plus side, some risks associated with the use of the combined estrogen and progestin therapy disappear after the regimen is stopped, including the increased risks of heart disease, stroke and blood clots in the lungs, the researchers found.
Unfortunately, the protective effects the hormones provide for hip fracture and colorectal cancer also disappear once women quit the regimen.
Even two and a half years later, former HRT users still have an increased risk of breast cancer, which was discovered in the original study, called the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). The increased risk after stopping the hormones, however, was not statistically significant. And, in a surprise finding, former HRT users also have a higher overall risk of getting cancers of many types compared to nonusers, the researchers found.
Despite the new findings, including the surprise finding about cancer, "the bottom line hasn't changed," says study researcher Gerardo Heiss, MD, professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The standard advice still applies, Heiss tells WebMD.
And that is for women to take the lowest possible dose of HRT for the shortest amount of time if they need it to quell bothersome symptoms such as hot flashes.
The study is published in the March 5 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
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