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

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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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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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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