Word: estrogenous
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Like latter-day Ponce de Leons, however, these women are watching their dream of eternal youth fade away. A large, federally funded clinical trial, part of a group of studies called the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), has definitively shown for the first time that the hormones in question--estrogen and progestin--are not the age-defying wonder drugs everyone thought they were. As if that weren't bad enough, the results, made public last week, proved that taking these hormones together for more than a few years actually increases a woman's risk of developing potentially deadly cardiovascular problems...
...with any major medical announcements, there are caveats and complications. The WHI wasn't designed to look at short-term use during menopause, for instance. But the principal message is this: taking estrogen and progestin for years in the hope of preventing a heart attack or stroke can no longer be considered a valid medical strategy. (For a detailed look at the pros and cons of hormone therapy for various conditions, see the chart on pages...
...findings are so striking that the study was stopped three years short of its scheduled completion. (The other WHI trials, which include a look at how estrogen alone affects women with hysterectomies, are still proceeding.) And the formal scientific report, which is being published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, was released a week early at a press conference in Washington...
...they have their ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed. Harsh medicine indeed, but women with the genetic mutation face a 50% to 85% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer and a 15% to 40% risk of ovarian cancer. Removing the ovaries helps prevent breast cancer by stemming the flow of estrogen, which spurs tumor growth; the procedure helps prevent ovarian cancer by eliminating the organs, though tumor cells may still exist nearby. Doctors think ovary removal may be an easier choice--especially for women who have completed childbearing--than the other surgical alternative: a prophylactic double mastectomy...
Breast cancer is a prime example. For more than two decades, women with early-stage, estrogen-sensitive breast cancers have been treated with surgery followed by a combination of tamoxifen and chemotherapy. Adding tamoxifen seemed to make sense, since it blocks estrogen's cancer-promoting effects. It turns out, however, that tamoxifen may act as a spoiler, preventing the chemotherapy agents from entering cancer cells and doing their job. In a paper being presented this week, researchers will report on a finding that should change the way doctors treat patients from now on; after eight years of follow-up exams...