News Tagged ‘estrogen plus progestin

Study: HRT puts women at greater risk for lung cancer

The reports of health problems associated with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) keep coming. First, the Women’s Health Initiative identified women who took the combined estrogen-plus-progestin therapy were at a much greater risk of developing breast cancer. It later showed these women were at an increased risk of heart disease and other serious health problems. Now, an article published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggests that women who took combined HRT are at an increased risk of lung cancer by as much as 50 percent.

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Ghostwritten medical journal articles about HRT should be retracted

William T. Creasman was listed as the author of an article written by a freelance writer for the December 1998 Journal of Women’s Health. The title: “Is there an association between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer?” The article points out that there is no “definitive evidence” that HRT is linked to breast cancer. But the dirty little secret behind that article in the medical journal is that Creasman didn’t actually write the article. It was authored by a writer for DesignWrite, a marketing firm that represented HRT-maker Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer. As the story was going to press, Wyeth was covering up evidence that proved otherwise. The drug company’s estrogen-plus-progestin HRT was, in fact, increasing a woman’s risk for breast cancer as well as heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

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Estrogen-only HRT linked to asthma after menopause

A study involving nearly 58,000 women in France over a 12-year period suggests that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may increase a woman’s risk of developing asthma after menopause. Researchers from the Gustave Roussy Institute in France and the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica in Mexico published the findings in the British medical journal, Thorax. The study suggested that women who took HRT were 21 percent more likely to develop asthma than women who did not take HRT. The risk was even greater for women who took estrogen-only HRT compared to the combined estrogen-plus-progestin therapy, with the estrogen-only group at 54 percent greater risk of developing asthma compared to women who did not take HRT. This is the first long-term, large-scale study to suggest that estrogen-only HRT puts women at much greater risk of asthma than the combined therapy.

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Women on HRT who experience breast tenderness at greater risk of cancer

breast cancer awareness ribbonWomen who reported new-onset breast tenderness following use of estrogen-plus-progestin hormone replacement therapy (HRT) were at a much greater risk of developing breast cancer than women on the same HRT who did not report tenderness in their breasts, according to a study by researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California – .

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Two breast cancer survivors awarded $100 million in HRT lawsuits

The message was heard loud and clear – powerful drug companies that make billions from products they know pose a significant risk of life-threatening health consequences to the people who take them, owe their victims. Big time.

This week, Pfizer, which recently acquired Wyeth, the makers of the hormone replacement therapies (HRT) Prempro and Premarin, were hit with more than $100 million in two punitive-damage awards from Philadelphia juries. The two plaintiffs, Connie Barton and Donna Kendall, claimed the drugs caused their breast cancer.

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Hormone therapy update

According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide among women. It is the fifth most deadly cancer, killing about 502,000 people per year. All of us know a family who has had to deal with this most serious problem.

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