Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)

Instead, supplemental calcium and increasing Vitamin D intake may be recommended for some women to help prevent and treat loss of bone mass. Other lifestyle changes, such as adding an exercise regimen to your routine and not smoking, may help in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis as well.

In addition, there are some medications available specifically for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. These include risedronate, calcitonin, etidronate, and alendronate.

text continues below

BREAST CANCER

The WHI estrogen/progestin trial was stopped primarily because of a 26% increased risk of breast cancer found in women taking hormone therapy. For every 10,000 women taking estrogen/progestin, 38 will develop invasive breast cancer; of 10,000 women not taking HRT, 30 will develop the disease.

The second component of the WHI study, which looked at estrogen alone in women who no longer have a uterus, did not find any increased risk of breast cancer.

UTERINE CANCER/ENDOMETRIAL CANCER

Taking estrogen alone causes the lining of the uterus to grow. The risk for endometrial cancer is six to eight times higher in women who take estrogen, comparedwith those who do not.

Progestin works to decrease the lining of the uterus. For women who still have their uterus, most doctors prescribe progestin (a synthetic progesterone) to counteract the effect of the estrogen.

The WHI study did not find any difference in endometrial cancer rates between the women who took hormones and those who did not. Depending on the form of HRT, taking progestin may cause bleeding similar to a period. This combination of estrogen and progesterone may be in the form of one pill, or it may be two separate pills.

OVARIAN CANCER

In another study, published by the National Cancer Institute in 2002, women who use estrogen therapy alone have an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer. This risk increases with the number of years a woman uses estrogen.

For women who used estrogen for 20 or more years, the risk of ovarian cancer was three times that of women who did not use estrogen.

This study did not have enough women to assess the potential risk of an estrogen/progestin combination on the risk of ovarian cancer.

COLON CANCER

The WHI study found a 37% lower risk of colon cancer in women who took estrogen/progestin than in women not on HRT. For every 10,000 women taking estrogen/progestin, 10 will develop colon cancer; of 10,000 women not taking HRT, 16 will develop the disease. This is a relatively new finding, and further studies are needed to confirm these results.