The reason, they believe, may be because during that time, millions of women abandoned [synthetic pharmaceutical] hormone treatment for the symptoms of menopause after a large national study concluded that the [synthetic] hormones slightly increased breast cancer risk.
“Epidemiology can never prove causality,” said Dr. Peter Ravdin, a medical oncologist at the M.D. Anderson center and one of the authors of the analysis.
a lower risk of others, than those taking a placebo.
“This could well be the study of the year in cancer,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, director of the Georgia Cancer Center at Emory University. He added that it also might help explain why breast cancer rates were lower for black women than for white women — blacks, he said, were less likely to use [prescription] hormones for menopause.
Other researchers, who saw Dr. Berry’s analysis in advance of its presentation yesterday, said they found the hypothesis convincing.
Because the pills were known to slow bone loss, some women used them to prevent osteoporosis. Some women and doctors also believed, without any good evidence, that the pills could keep skin youthful, preserve memory and make women energetic.
The use of estrogen to treat menopause took off in 1966, when a doctor, Robert Wilson, wrote the best-selling book “Feminine Forever” and flew across the country promoting it. He insisted that estrogen could keep women young, healthy and attractive. Women would be replacing a hormone they had lost at menopause just as diabetics replace the insulin their pancreas fails to make.
“We looked at all the possible explanations,” Dr. Berry said. He ticked them off: less mammography screening. But there was no sign of that. Increased use of drugs like tamoxifen that can prevent breast cancer; no evidence of that.
“There was some notion that it might be statins, but that was essentially debunked,” Dr. Berry said.
After July 2002, Dr. Berry said, the rate “dropped each month and it is exactly where you would expect it to be” if the declining use of menopausal hormones were the reason.
That was also the conclusion of Christina Clarke, an epidemiologist at the Northern California Cancer Center, and her colleagues, when they analyzed the cancers rates in California. The investigators used data they had collected for a National Cancer Institute’s program and data from Kaiser Permanente, the health insurer.
The investigators found that the breast cancer incidence fell even more in California than in the rest of the country — the overall drop was 11 percent in 2003, compared with 7 percent nationally. And, Dr. Clarke said, more women in California also had been using hormone therapy than women in other states.
There are undisputed differences between bio-identical natural progesterone and synthetic 'Progestin' as used in 'The Pill', Prempro and Provera.
NOT natural progesterone from Wild Yam and Soya.
Synthetic progesterone i.e.‘Progestin’ is the chemical HRT drug responsible for increased breast cancer, heart disease, strokes, blood clots and coronary embolisms.
Natural Progesterone is a beneficial, safe, effective menopausal alternative.
By knowing the difference you can make an informed intelligent choice.