A compelling defense of Hormone Replacement (Menopausal) Therapy, exposing the faulty science behind its fall from prominence and giving women the information they need to make informed decisions about their health.
For decades, HRT was hailed as an undeniable benefit for menopausal symptoms, heart, brain, and bone. But in 2002, when the Women’s Health Initiative announced results claiming that estrogen raises the risks of breast cancer and many other dire medical conditions, the winds shifted abruptly. Estrogen, officially deemed a carcinogen, was left for dead.
Now, years later, Dr. Avrum Bluming, a medical oncologist, and Dr. Carol Tavris, a social psychologist, present a compelling case for its resurrection. They demonstrate not only that the WHI was seriously flawed, creating unwarranted alarms and fears, but also what years of scientific studies have actually found:
- HRT is the most effective treatment for menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, vaginal dryness, heart palpitations, joint pain, and loss of sexual desire—symptoms that can last an average of seven years.
- There is no current way to prevent or reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia—except estrogen.
- Seven times as many women die of heart disease as die of breast cancer annually, and HRT can decrease that risk by 30 to 50 percent. After age 50, a woman’s risk of dying of heart disease is much greater than her risk of dying of breast cancer.
- As many women die annually following osteoporotic hip fracture as die of breast cancer, and HRT can cut this risk in half.
- Women taking HRT live, on average, three to four years longer than those not taking it.
- There is no evidence to support the current medical advice to take HRT at the lowest dose for the shortest period of time.
- Most studies have found that estrogen does not increase the risk of breast cancer, and it can often be given safely even to women who have had breast cancer.