Leading US oncologist Dr Avrum Bluming joins Dr Louise Newson to talk about the crucial role of oestrogen in women’s health.
Despite HRT’s proven benefits in protecting against heart disease, bone fracture and cognitive decline, many women still avoid it over breast cancer fears.
It’s been more than 20 years since media headlines about a study called the Women’s Health Initiative linked HRT to an increased risk of breast cancer. In this podcast, Dr Bluming says that in fact we now know oestrogen alone decreases the risk of breast cancer development by 23% and risk of death from breast cancer by 40%.
He also disputes the findings of the WHI study that combined progesterone and oestrogen HRT leads to a small increase in breast cancer cases.
‘It is very upsetting when such an influential study continues to misquote their own data,’ says Dr Bluming, who has spent 25 years studying the benefits and risks of HRT in breast cancer survivors.
Dr Bluming points out that oestrogen used to be a treatment for breast cancer before chemotherapy was developed, and that rates of breast cancer increase as we age, despite the fact our oestrogen levels fall as we get older.
You can read about Dr Bluming's latest paper here, and listen to an earlier podcast Dr Newson and Dr Bluming recorded here.
253 - Coping with the perimenopause when you’re a carer
252 - Bryony Gordon: mental health, hormones and witchy magic
251 - Kate Muir: everything you need to know about hormones but were afraid to ask
250 - Testosterone: the missing piece of the jigsaw?
249 - Dr Mary Claire Haver: on a mission to demystify menopause
248 - The menopause brain: why it might be feeling strange and what you can do about it
247 - Addiction and menopause
246 - Postnatal depression, PMDD and menopause: Wendy’s hormone journey
245 - How medicine has failed women, with author Elinor Cleghorn
244 - Hot flush drug fezolinetant
243 - Contraception during perimenopause: HRT, the pill and the Mirena coil
242 - Sex, hormones and the menopause
241 - Women, ADHD and hormones
240 - Creating long-lasting food habits for better health
239 - Challenging NICE's draft menopause guidance
238 - New Year, new mindset – why movement matters more than exercise
237 - The juggling act: how to navigate menopause and midlife
236 - Menopause in overlooked communities
235 - Menopause and brain health: what’s the link?
234 - Breast cancer treatment and HRT
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