Research shows Hormonal Therapy increases risk of Cancer

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
A recent study conducted by the University of Oxford, revealed that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) increases the risk of ovarian cancer. .” HRT drugs are used to improve the symptoms of menopause, which can be so severe they interfere with normal activity of daily living. Fifty-two separate subjects were analysed during the course of the research; they also found an additional case for every one thousand women taking the medication for five years from the age of 50 yrs. Claims that short term use of HRT was safe were strongly opposed by lead researcher Sir Richard Peto who said: “it simply isn’t true.”
Sir Peto added: “It’s a risk, about a million women in this country have HRT and 1,000 will get ovarian cancer from it. The risks would be reduced for those taking it for a shorter period of time but were still there. If it were me and I had really bad symptoms, I’d worry more about those than any possible risk.”
Past studies show that HRT has also been proven to increase the risk of breast cancer; however they have also been found to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and bowel cancers.
Theresa Chaffey who is on the HRT medication said via a “BBC website”: “I wasn’t actually given any information in regards to any breast cancer risk or ovarian cancer risk. Hearing the news today is very worrying because of actually being on HRT for so long and with GPs continually saying I need to stay on it for my bones as well as any symptoms.”
Seven thousand cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year and over a million women are currently on the HRT medication.