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Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
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lalaland13
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
My mom got a hysterectomy in her 30s, and is nearly 50 now. Her doctor just told her she needs to ween herself off the hormone therapy. I'm relieved, but also wondering why this didn't happen sooner. I hope this is true and it's not as bad as it can sound. A couple years ago, she had to have a biopsy and while it turned out fine, it freaked me out a lot.
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Flackette Goes Retro
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
My mom hit menopause at 32. She was in no way physically or emotionally prepared for a life without estrogen. HRT was a godsend to her and my family. She is still on it; I don't know if she always will be, but it definitely has a place in medicine.
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swimmingly
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
My mom went through the prcoess of menopause starting at 35 and refused to take HRT after spending some time on it. First of all, they made her mean. Really mean. And she's always been a conspiracy theorist and has said that something is wrong with HRT. On the other hand, I should start popping the babies out because otherwise my ladyparts are going to retire earlier.
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MillyMoo
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
My mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer when she was on HRT. While we are starting to suspect we have the breast cancer gene (her sister was diagnosed a few years ago), her doctors have speculated that the HRT exacerbated the problem. Hopefully by the time I reach menopause, there will be some more conlcusive studies. Until then, keep those hormones away!
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hannapdx
02/05/09

@MillyMoo: Yes, I have two aunts, on both sides of my family, who were diagnosed with breast cancer while on HRT about ten years ago. I hope by the time I start going through menopause, medical advancements will have been made. I'm scared to even take birth control now.
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BeSarcastic
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
I still don't understand how this cannot include BCPs, too. It's also estrogen and progestin.
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CollegeBookworm
02/05/09

@BeSarcastic: HBC can raise your risk of breast cancer- but i think the dosages for menopause versus birth control are different, and the risk levels are different.
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BeSarcastic
02/05/09

@CollegeBookworm: Thank you. I figured it had to do with dosage. I just get peeved when all of these studies about the hormone-breast cancer link comes out and they *never* mention BCPs. It would be helpful if they mentioned it.
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la.donna.pietra
02/05/09

@BeSarcastic: If I understand it correctly--and I may not--it has to do with how a woman's body processes the hormones. When a woman is younger, her body is expecting certain doses of estrogen and progestin (especially since women were usually either constantly pregnant or breastfeeding prior to reliable contraception). Once a woman enters menopause, her body is (naturally) expecting lower doses of hormones, because that's how things work normally. If she artificially raises hormone levels at that point, things go wacky.

(I realize this theory suggests that women are supposed to just suffer naturally through menopause, and after watching my mom and several coworkers go through hell and the Valley of Hot Flashes, I don't ascribe to that notion at all.)
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funnyface
02/05/09

@BeSarcastic: If you look closely at the literature that comes with your BCP, I bet there's information about an increased breast cancer risk, along with the usual stuff about not smoking and blood clots.
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Red-headed bookworm
02/05/09

@BeSarcastic: I always worry about that because I take them and with my mom's breast cancer, I have a higher risk. I have to start mammograms at 32...fun.
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la.donna.pietra
02/05/09

@funnyface: There isn't, actually. Study after study has shown that the slight increase in breast cancer in women who take the BCP is due to delayed age of pregnancy. If you get pregnant between the ages of 17 and 25 and you breastfeed, your breast cancer risk is cut in half. Obviously, most women who are on the pill don't have kids or breastfeed between ages 17-25; that's the main point of being on the pill. As an interesting side note, this means that abstinence and condoms also slightly increase a woman's risk of breast cancer.
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BeSarcastic
02/05/09

@la.donna.pietra: Thank you. And thanks to everyone for their responses. Interesting stuff.
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kelsium
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
Yes, perhaps it was because suddenly millions more Americans did not have preventative health care... maybe.
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jejune - the giraffe hugger
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
Personally, I'm just not that into drugs made with horse pee. But feel free to check back with me when I'm actually dealing with hot flashes and vaginal dryness (sounds like fun!).
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CollegeBookworm
02/05/09

@jejune - the giraffe hugger: ...Really? That's what they make synthetic hormones out of? Ew.

Now is that ALL synthetic hormones, or just the ones they give menopausal women? Or is there horse pee in my Nuvaring, and therefore horse pee in my vagina?
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funnyface
02/05/09

@CollegeBookworm: A lot of insulin also comes from pigs. And a lot of tetanus shots are grown in the plasma of prison inmates.
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CollegeBookworm
02/05/09

@funnyface: ...Oh god. I did not need to know that. At all.

Also, this brings up all sorts of questions about keeping kosher. Why, when I find out about gross things, is my first instinct to ask "Is it kosher?" Because horse piss is definitely not kosher, and I was taking my hormones by pill for a while, which means I ingested them...
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JazzednJersey
02/05/09

@funnyface: Insulin today is synthetic, so the piggies are safe (my daughter has Type I diabetes). Not sure about the tetanus grown in plasma of inmates, but UGH, just UGH!
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ritualtheory
02/05/09

@CollegeBookworm: My suspicion is that, depending on your denomination, you get an ignorance pass for that. Unless you were ingesting them with cheeseburger chasers...
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CollegeBookworm
02/05/09

@ritualtheory: Well, I'm pretty sure the real answer is that you're allowed to bend pretty much any Jewish rules to save your life/for your health. Birth control improves my quality of life! Shorter periods and less cramps.
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funnyface
02/05/09

@CollegeBookworm: That's interesting to me. Like, what if the un-kosher pill was like, life-saving and necessary? Is there some sort of Jewish way of deciding which is more important?
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funnyface
02/05/09

@JazzednJersey: The only way I know about the tetanus is because my dad (ER doc) used to moonlight running a blood donation program at Cummins Prison. The inmates get paid to donate their plasma, and my dad's job was to make sure they were healthy enough to donate.
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CollegeBookworm
02/05/09

@funnyface: Saving your life/health in general always comes first. The classic example is that if a person were to put a gun to your head and say he'll shoot you if you don't eat this bacon cheeseburger, you eat the fucking bacon cheeseburger. Because you can do greater good for the world having eaten the fucking bacon cheeseburger and living than you can do when you're dead.

However, the rules differ slightly if what you would do to save your life would break one of the ten commandments. You don't kill someone else to save your own life, for example.
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NefariousNewt
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
Heard this on NPR on the way home last night. As with anything, I'm not sure this can be labelled definitive until there's been a definite trend for a few more years. The problem is, it's hard to know if it was just stopping HRT or something else in conjunction with the HRT has dropped off.
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morninggloria
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
AHHH! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE SOMEDAY, FROM SOMETHING!
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CollegeBookworm
02/05/09

@morninggloria: OH NO!

I'd better go get my giant plastic bubble and live in that.
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million.dollar.mouth.
02/05/09

@morninggloria: Not me. I am gonna live FOREVAH!! (so is kitteh)
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PontiousPiePlate-(SaraBB)
02/05/09

@sammyboombaladddy.the.wonder.kitteh: *said in an Oasis- style* "...see things they'll never see, you and I are gonna live forevvvvvvver!"

(Sadly, this is ALWAYS the first thing I think of when I hear the words, "live" and "forever" in the same sentence...)
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million.dollar.mouth.
02/05/09

@PontiousPiePlate-(SaraBB): hehe....now I am gonna have the same thoughts when hearing those words :)
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BelleBreezing
02/05/09

@morninggloria: The thing is ,though, dieing from Cancer is a horrible way to go. It's like being burned to death...slow and painful.
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morninggloria
02/05/09

@BelleBreezing: Dying in general is terrible, but everyone has to go through it. I used to work at a nursing home, and no matter what people died of, it sucked and was filled with pain and agony.

The fact that horrible, drawn out death usually happens at the end is life's dirty little secret. I'd rather get hit by a bus at age 60 and be killed instantly rather than live to 95 and be slowly withering for 10 years.
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Red-headed bookworm
02/05/09

@morninggloria: Yeah, I'd rather die in my sleep of a heart attack or stroke. Something quick. I don't want a drawn out death. Cancer is horrible, though. It's horrible to the person dying and all their loved ones seeing it.
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funnyface
02/05/09

In reply to Report: Breast Cancer Risk Drops After Stopping Hormone Therapy
My husband has been telling me for years about how flawed the HRT studies were, and how he really thinks that we got it wrong RE: conventional wisdom about HRT being "harmful." Glad to see it's finally being publicized-- menopause looks like a bitch and a half, and if HRT makes it easier to bear without being as risky as they have been telling us, then I'm glad women will have access to some relief.
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