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A federal study revealed that the pharmaceutical company Wyeth paid ghostwriters to write articles for medical journals that were favorable to the drug company’s hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Prempro, even after the drug was found to raise a woman’s risk for breast cancer, according to the New York Times.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and its link to breast cancer and other serious conditions continue to make headlines. This week, U.S. News & World Report announced that women who take HRT and then get breast cancer are at lower risk of dying from their disease, according to a new study by the University of California-Irvine.
A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reveals that women who took hormone replacement therapy (HRT) face an increased risk of cancer several years after stopping the treatment, according to an NPR report.
Overweight women suffer more hot flashes during menopause than women who maintain a normal weight, according to the Hartford Courant. The news story references a study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology that debunks an earlier belief that menopausal women who were heavier experienced fewer hot flashes than thin women.
How can you tell if the physical symptoms you are experiencing are from menopause or from a much more serious problem like a heart attack? Dr. Jeff Hersh, a columnist with the Taunton Daily Gazette, recently addressed this question, noting that there are several misconceptions about heart disease in women that first must be understood.
In the 1960s, a New York gynecologist wrote a book called “Feminine Forever,” in which he recommended estrogen for menopause, stating that women on the hormone replacement drug “will be much more pleasant to live with and will not become dull and unattractive.”
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals caught wind of the book and its author’s claims that estrogen reduced a woman’s risk for both breast and genital cancers, and began distributing the book to physicians across the country. Soon after, sales of Wyeth’s HRT drug Premarin took off, growing to more than 30 million prescriptions each year.
Two years ago, M.D. Anderson researchers announced a 7 percent drop in breast cancer rates which coincidentally occurred around the same time that women were being told by the media and their doctors of the possible link between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and serious diseases and conditions such as breast cancer and heart disease.
Women with existing heart conditions should consider their heart disease risk and visit a doctor for a heart health evaluation when considering estrogen hormone replacement therapy (HRT), according to a University of Michigan study.
Nevada’s attorney general is suing drug makers Wyeth and Pfizer for alleged deceptive trade practices and misleading the public about the safety of its hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, according to RGJ.com.
Women who take breast cancer drugs Arimidex or generic tamoxifen and suffer with menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats or painful joints may be less likely to have a reoccurrence of their cancer tumors, according to Reuters.
