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Health professionals Management HRT and breast cancer
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and breast cancer risk
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Introduction
Jean Hailes strongly advocates that women and health professionals take a balanced, evidence-based and informed approach to health. All risks and benefits should be taken into perspective when considering the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal symptom relief.
For example, having more than two standard drinks per day, being overweight or obese, having your first child over the age of 35 or going into menopause at a later age are higher risk factors for breast cancer than taking HRT.
HRT has been used to effectively relieve symptoms for women for whom quality of life is affected by moderate to severe symptoms. However, recent scientific publications and media reports regarding HRT have raised concerns that need to be evaluated and understood in context.
Papers purporting to link HRT with increased breast cancer risk
Follow the links below for details of scientific publications that have reported an association between HRT use and breast cancer risk, plus comments on the studies from experts at Jean Hailes:
- Collaborative Reanalysis of breast cancer and HRT studies (1997)
- Women's Health Initiative [WHI] on oestrogen + progestogen (2002)
- Million Women Study (2003)
- Women's Health Initiative [WHI] on oestrogen alone after hysterectomy (2004)
- Cancer Council NSW paper in MJA (2008)
Frequently Asked Questions
For questions that may be asked by women taking or considering HRT, see our Consumer section.
Conclusions
For otherwise healthy women, taking HRT for 2-5 years to relieve menopausal symptoms causes little if any increase in breast cancer risk.
If you're not taking HRT during menopause, you have a 3 in 1000 chance of developing breast cancer in a given year. If you take HRT for five years, that chance goes up slightly to just under 4 in 1000. Weigh this small risk against the benefits of HRT: It can significantly improve women's quality of life and reduce risks of osteoporosis, diabetes, colon cancer and possibly heart disease.
If you choose HRT, you should take the lowest effective dose for only as long as required by your symptoms and regularly review your reasons to continue (or not) with your health practitioner. HRT can be stopped at any time; once you've stopped treatment, any increase in breast cancer risk lessens over time and is lost within five years.
Current guidelines recommend that women who take HRT for menopausal symptoms should take the lowest effective dose for the shortest time period needed to alleviate their symptoms.
HRT can be stopped at any time with the guidance of your medical practitioner. Once you've stopped treatment, any increase in breast cancer risk lessens over time and is lost within five years. Jean Hailes recommends that each woman discuss her decision about taking HRT with her health practitioner regularly, or whenever she has any concerns.
Further Resources
Management of Menopausal Symptoms
Jean Hailes HRT fact sheet256.52 KB
HRT in the Early Menopause: Scientific Evidence and Common Perceptions 201.2 KB – A Summary of the first International Menopause Society (IMS) global summit on menopause-related issues, 29-30 March 2008
IMS recommendations on Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy and Preventive Strategies for Midlife Health 156.43 KB - updated June 2011
US Endocrine Society Scientific Statement on Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy 5.74MB - published July 2010
Australasian Menopause Society (AMS) position statement on HRT and Breast Cancer
North American Menopause Society (NAMS) 2010 position statement on hormone therapy 200KB
Content updated 7 March 2012
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