Keep God Weird

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(03-04) 13:21 Pacific Time SAN FRANCISCO --
The increased hazard of breast malignant neoplastic disease that come ups with taking oestrogen and progestogen internal secretions lingers even after women halt taking the pills, according to new research that rises more concerns for women who are despairing to ease the symptoms of menopause.

In the first follow-up survey of the landmark Women's Health Initiative, research workers establish that women who took the concerted oestrogen and progestogen therapy faced a greater menace of being diagnosed with not just breast malignant neoplastic disease but all types of malignant neoplastic disease up to three old age after they halt taking hormones.

The survey results, released in the Diary of the American Checkup Association today, are distressing for women and docs who had hoped that the hazards associated with internal secretion substitution therapy faded once women stopped taking the drugs.

"I don't believe this news should be awful to women," said Dr. Marcia Stefanick, a professor of medical specialty at the Leland Stanford Prevention Research Center and a senior writer of the study. "But I personally believe that women should only travel on menopausal internal secretion therapy if they have got terrible symptoms. They should really believe about whether they're so bad off that they desire to begin something that come ups with all these risks."

The new research reenforces what docs have got suggested for years: that women who must take internal secretions take the least dose possible and that they halt taking the drugs as soon as they are able. Stefanick and other research workers state that based on the Women's Health Enterprise results, five old age is clearly too long to take the drugs, but the hazards could be greatly reduced if women took internal secretions for just two or three years.

Two types of internal secretion therapy are available: estrogen-only and concerted oestrogen and progestin. The new research uses only to women on concerted internal secretion therapy. Women take internal secretions during and after climacteric to relieve uncomfortable symptoms such as as hot flashes, temper swings and nighttime sweats. Hopes for therapy fade

Roughly 25 million women in the United States take some word form of internal secretion therapy, usually the concerted oestrogen and progestin.

Doctors once believed that internal secretion therapy had respective long-term wellness benefits, including improved bosom health. But the Women's Health Initiative, which was developed to detect the hazards and benefits of internal secretion therapy, was halted in 2002 when women on concerted therapy showed an increased hazard of bosom disease, shot and breast cancer.

Soon many one thousands of women stopped taking hormones. The bosom disease hazard later was establish to be negligible in little women who started treatment at the oncoming of menopause, and the increased hazard of shot was establish to be minimal. Hormone substitution therapy makes clasp benefits, including less rates of colon malignant neoplastic disease and os fractures.

In the up-to-the-minute research, docs establish that the hazard of shot and bosom onslaught dissipated soon after women stopped taking the drugs. But the benefits of internal secretion therapy also faded. And the hazard of malignant neoplastic disease remained.

"We don't desire to overplay this thing. There really are a relatively little figure of negative events. But it acquires you rethinking this treatment. It changes the risk-benefit ratio," said Dr. Rowan Chlebowski, an research worker with the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute and an writer of the study.

The Women's Health Enterprise involved 16,608 participants who were taking concerted internal secretion therapy or a placebo for an norm of 5.6 years. Of the original participants, 15,730 were involved in the follow-up research for an norm of 2.4 old age after the trial ended.

While on the hormones, women had a 26 percentage higher hazard for breast malignant neoplastic disease than participants taking placebos. Two to three old age after fillet the drugs, the hazard of developing breast malignant neoplastic disease was 27 percentage higher for those women than for participants taking placebos. Estrogen's influence

Women on internal secretion therapy also had a 24 percentage greater hazard of developing any type of malignant neoplastic disease after they stopped the drugs.

That's an interesting consequence from a research standpoint, docs said, because it demoes that oestrogen might play a larger function than previously thought in eating all sorts of cancers.

"Estrogen clearly drives breast cancer, but there was A small more than lung cancer, too, and that's a spot of a surprise," Stefanick said. "The fact that you have got got another malignant neoplastic disease here, another 1 there, it really raises the inquiry of estrogen's possible influence on a broad scope of cancer."

Researchers from Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company that brands the internal secretions used in the Women's Health Enterprise study, said the new research doesn't change what women have been told for some clip now - that internal secretions are good to women who necessitate alleviation from menopause, and that they should be taken in low doses for as short a clip as possible.

They added that the research doesn't separate the hazard to women of different age groups, which was a job with the original study. Researchers eventually discovered that the bosom disease hazard was only a job with women in their 60s and aged pickings internal secretions - that's of import because women in their 50s are more than likely to take hormones.

"The hazards really make alteration for the 50- to 59-year-old woman, for the newly menopausal woman, and that is usually the adult female seeking relief," said Dr. Eileen Helzner, caput of medical attention for Wyeth's women's wellness attention division. "These current determinations make not impact the counsel for the appropriate usage of internal secretion therapy. We still strongly promote women to talk with their ain doctors and do determinations on their individual hazards and benefits."

Hormone therapy risks, benefits

Research from the Women's Health Enterprise have revealed a amalgamated bag of hazards and benefits from internal secretion therapy since the survey was halted in 2002. Among the determinations were that, when compared to a placebo group, women on concerted internal secretion therapy had:

-- Higher hazard for breast cancer, shot and blood coagulums while taking the drugs.

-- Higher menace of bosom onslaught for women aged than 60 while taking the drugs.

-- Lower Berth rates of colon malignant neoplastic disease and os breaks while on the drugs.

-- Higher hazard for breast malignant neoplastic disease and other types of malignant neoplastic disease up to three old age after fillet the drugs.

In addition, research have establish that:

-- The benefits of internal secretion therapy faded after women stopped the drugs, along with the hazards of stroke, blood coagulums and bosom attack.

-- The tools used to diagnose breast malignant neoplastic disease - namely mammograms and breast biopsy - are less effectual in women who are taking concerted internal secretion therapy.

E-mail Erin Allday at .