Word: estrogenous
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Biology, alas, is rarely so straightforward. Researchers came to realize that it wasn't safe to give estrogen alone to a woman with an intact uterus. Unopposed estrogen, as it is called, dramatically increases the chances that a woman will develop uterine cancer. (Obviously, this isn't a problem for women who have undergone hysterectomies.) The addition of progestin, another female hormone, seemed to take care of that problem...
Even the studies that showed that estrogen improved a woman's cholesterol profile weren't ultimately all that satisfying. After all, plenty of women with normal cholesterol levels still have heart attacks. What was needed was a hard-core clinical trial so rigorously designed that no one could contest the results...
...which is divided into five major studies that look at everything from the role of diet in determining a woman's health as she ages to the role of hormones in that process. More than 16,000 healthy women, ages 50 to 79, volunteered for the study on estrogen and progestin...
...spring of this year, however, a new danger emerged from the data. Not only were women who took estrogen and progestin more likely to suffer heart attacks and blood clots in the lungs and legs, but they also had a slightly increased risk of developing breast cancer. That was just enough to tip the scale. Though the women on HRT suffered fewer hip fractures (1 woman per 1,000 per year vs. 1 1/2 women per 1,000 per year), the benefit wasn't great enough to warrant the risk. Because the trial was designed to look at women...
Intriguingly, the part of the WHI study that focuses on the long-term benefits of estrogen alone among women who have undergone hysterectomies is ongoing. So far, the safety board has not detected any excess risk of breast cancer in this group. Apparently, estrogen plus progestin has a negative cumulative effect on the breast that estrogen by itself seems not to have...