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Hormone replacement therapy is taking another hit. Over the last several years, HRT has been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer. A new study involving more than 900,000 Danish women suggests that HRT use also increases the chance of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Although the increase is significant at almost 40 percent, the overall risk remained low. In every 8,300 women taking postmenopausal hormones there would be one additional case of ovarian cancer. The increased likelihood of developing ovarian cancer dropped within a year of stopping the hormones. Within two years, the risk of ovarian cancer was no higher than that of women who had never taking HRT.[Journal of the American Medical Association, July 15, 2009]
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/302/3/298?home
I have wondered if any group would be studying the link between HRT and ovarian cancer. In 2002, at age 70, I had taken HRT for around twenty years and during a routine checkup asked my doctor about quitting the therapy. In doing the examination, she felt an enlargement in my abdomen and thought I had an enlarged uterus so sent me for an ultrasound. The radiologist told me that I had an ovarian cyst that would probably be removed laproscopically.
I was surprised then to be sent to a GYN oncologist and told him what the radiologist had told me. He was surprised at what I had been told and said that he was going to cut me open and see what was there. What he found was a 15 cm cancerous (clear cell carcinoma) tumor that was encapsulated in my left ovary only. It, very fortunately, had not spread; ten lymph glands that were examined were clear. As a precaution, I had six chemotherapy treatments of Doxil which caused me few side effects, only a bit of rash on my hands from time to time.
I was told that I am one of the lucky two to three percent of people who have ovarian cancer that has not spread at the time of detection. So--I quit Prempro cold turkey. At the time of my exam, I had over the previous months lost 43 pounds. I have wondered if the reduction of abdominal fat enabled the doctor to detect the tumor.