Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) dramatically increases the risk of breast cancer and one in 20 cases of breast cancer in the UK are due to HRT; these findings reflect previous studies but do not mention a similar increase in ovarian cancer risk.
These findings on the real dangers of HRT and breast cancer are the conclusions of the most comprehensive worldwide study ever undertaken on the drug, by a team from Oxford University.
While 6.3% of women in the 50-69 age group who have not taken the hormone drug develop breast cancer, 8.3% of those who take or have taken HRT do so. This means that one in 50 women develops the disease directly because of the drug – a synthetic oestrogen/progestagen mix.
The team did not look at other cancers such as ovarian cancer, which has also been shown in the past to be caused by HRT.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist said, “Frankly, how many times has this now been shown? We told you years ago about this, and specifically in 2016 that research from the Institute of Cancer Research showed HRT tripled breast cancer risk.
In 2004, the Lancet reported that HRT could double breast cancer risk. This is exactly the same figure that was found in the Boston nurses study a decade earlier. Dr Sherrill Sellman gave us an exclusive interview back in 2005 about HRT and increased risks of Breast cancer showing how rates had increased.
A 5-year study on HRT was stopped in the USA because this synthetic dangerous drug was causing breast cancer increases almost immediately. Hundreds of thousands of women then didn't take it in the following few years and breast cancer incidence dropped for the first and only time!
In 2015, the Lancet published a meta-analysis showing that 1 woman per 1000 taking HRT would develop ovarian cancer because of the drug! Not much risk, you might think? But 6 million women in America take HRT. So an extra 72,000 women are going to develop ovarian cancer at some point in their lives and the risk effects stay with women for more than ten years even after stopping HRT!
At CANCERactive we have always adopted the precautionary principle. We have told readers regularly since 2004 that there was a significant increased risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and others, every time research came out. But still doctors and cancer charities try to make out the benefits outweigh the risks or that the risks are exaggerated and that hot flushes and brittle bones have to be treated with HRT, when a sensible Mediterranean diet, magnesium-rich foods and an exercise programme can go a long way to beating these problems.
How much more research evidence do doctors and major UK Cancer charities need in order to stop ignoring the risks and providing poor advice? If HRT had been a herb, it would have been banned immediately. It's costing the NHS a fortune in unnecessary cancer treatment; and it's damaging families and lives.
But HRT kills women and makes Big Pharma lots of money, and that’s the sad truth. That there are still danger denialists is a disgrace”.
Professor Valerie Beral led the team who showed that even the oestrogen and intermittent progestogen regime had an increased risk; and that the belief that 'if women start HRT before age 50 there was no increased risk' was a complete myth. The team also showed that there was 'no benefit to heart health'.
While Professor Richard Peto was clear and saying that “On Websites in this country and other countries the risk is misrepresented and I hope that is going to change quite sharply”, the danger denialists urged caution and went into ‘it’s not as bad as it looks’ mode. But this is what happened after an American Study in 2006 showed serious increased risks of breast and ovarian cancer with the same synthetic HRT combination. HRT usage declined over the next 7 years as did the levels of breast cancer.
But these drugs (like Thalidomide too) have a mysterious way of making come backs.
Readers might like to know that there may be a natural alternative. People in the know are talking about Pueraria mirifica, a herb grown in countries such as Thailand.
Go to: Is Pueraria mirifica the safe natural alternative to HRT?