Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

There is plenty of bad press about hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a striking reversal of just a decade or two ago, when drug makers were touting the many benefits of HRT for menopausal women. Those drug makers spent millions of dollars developing advertising campaigns and paying doctors to write articles in medical journals claiming the pills that combined estrogen and progestin were the fountain of youth. They put an end to nasty menopause symptoms such as mood swings and hot flashes, and offered the added benefit of strengthening bones and protecting women against cancer and heart disease.

Read the rest of this entry »

Drug companies’ advertisements touting the benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) sold Delores Ann Spann Whatley of Tyler, Texas on the idea that her mood swings and hot flashes could be wiped away with just a daily pill. The estrogen-and-progestin cocktail was touted as a miracle drug, able to squash menopause symptoms while warding against osteoporosis, heart disease and cancer. But the pharmaceutical companies soon realized that the HRT that was making them rich was actually making consumers sick. But instead of notifying the public and pulling their product, the drug companies attempted to cover up the mounting statistics and continued to advertise to women about the benefits of HRT.

Read the rest of this entry »

Women who took Wyeth’s hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Prempro at least five years are at greater risk of dying from non-small cell lung cancer, according to a recent study presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to issue a warming to doctors about an increased risk of the recurrence of breast cancer with patients taking both the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and select antidepressants, according to a study released last week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) who have no family history of breast cancer have the same risk of developing breast cancer as women with a family history who are on HRT, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center Study.

Read the rest of this entry »

The more than 2 million baby-boomer women who are approaching menopause may find themselves in a precarious position when it comes to handling hot flashes and mood swings. Should they risk the threat of breast cancer from use of hormone replacement therapy, or simply suffer through the agonizing symptoms? According to Forbes, new and detailed research offers women the opportunity to make a more educated decision.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »