I’m going to attempt to explain briefly why I believe that the eventual issue and potential relationship between cancer and hormones (non bioidentical) will never reach a consensus. Firstly, we have to consider a fact that we probably never think of: we only talk about “positive” studies, by means, studies that have concluded that cancer increases with the use of hormones (in this case, non bioidentical hormones). Studies where there was never found an increase of the frequency or even of a protective effect in relation to the hormones, it is barely spoken, as these aren’t alarming, nor sensational news and therefore do not stick into one’s mind.
In reality, if we explore the existent references in half of the studies, argue that this relationship isn’t verified. So we are left confused. How worth are studies and science if some argue yes and others argue no? We don’t know what to advice, to do or to think, to play it safe, the best is to not use it!
However, what we need all to think is that this controversy happens because it is not possible to control all the variables that may interfere in studies and that we know that might be potential causes of breast cancer and people do not to talk about it. As an example, if a woman drinks coffee and how many does she, if she smokes, if she drinks alcohol, if she is obese and has peripheral resistance to insulin, if she does not workout, has bad eating habits, takes antidepressant medicine and anxiolytics, takes converting enzyme inhibitors and other types of medication for hypertension, if takes contraceptive pill for a long period and has initiated it before her 20s, if….and this “if”….would extend almost indefinably to the speed of the current know-how. All of these “ifs” increase the risk of breast cancer, more than the use of non-bioidentical hormones.
However, paradoxically no one speaks about it, plus, if a woman does not sleep because of menopause, she is straight away advised to take anxiolytic and/or antidepressant medicine instead of conducting a hormonal therapy….because of cancer!!! So it is not given hormones for cancer but in counterpart and due to the lack of knowledge, it is given other substances that even increase more the risk of it!
It is my strong belief that not doing therapy to a woman under the perception of what “causes cancer” is not good clinical practice.
If only 30% of women suffer from petrifying “heats”, ALL and all means 100% will have, if they don’t make hormones, vaginal dryness, mucosal atrophy, urinary incontinence, low libido, skin flaccidness, to not mention the cognitive side, loss and lack of focus and memory and other complains. As well as the osteoporosis, that will be there for sure at some point.
It is not fair to not take care of a woman, who most of the times is the head of the family, sometimes by herself, in charge of children, having to work outside and in the house, has to be a mother, a wife, a professional, manage the household, a driver, and had been able to do all of this multi-tasking at the same time and now is limited to an insecurity that follows her and disturbs her, deprived from sleep, with more stress, unhappy and unable to take care of the multiple tasks she was once responsible for. We should all think about this. Some women come to me saying “I do not wish to live like this”. We only live once. Health isn’t the absence of a disease. It is beyond being happy and content, in balance with life and this is only possible if we have our hormonal balance established.
The hormones exist to perform certain chemical functions in the body, it is easy to understand, that they are not there for no reason. To keep them (not at the same level as we would at our 20s, I think that’s not sensitive, as the most important is the balance that we should maintain, and at our 50s, 60s or more our chemical balance has nothing to do with the one we had at our 20s), it is by helping the body balance it all, that it will allow us to have better and more quality of life.
A lot has changed, to replace hormones at the level of our 20s would cause a derangement that the body would have to work out to re-balance, and what we have to do is to ease the body and to help it by not giving it unnecessary work.
The chromosomes are no longer the same as at our 20s, the enzymes loose capacities, a whole set of known and unknown situations by science have changed. We have to be thoughtful and seek to help by never exciding our own physiologic level.
If the woman is hormonally balanced and is not stressed, yes stress is linked to cancer, think this fact is of common agreement by all. It makes me sad to see colleagues and patients under the stigma that hormones cause cancer, which leads them to a path of consuming anxiolytic and anti-depressant medicines as an attempt to solve the women’s issues, and these medicines have potentially around 6 times more risk of causing breast cancer, combined with the long-term consequences, of loss of memory, skin flaccidness, etc. that can be established as time goes by.
It is within my moral and professional responsibility to inform about this, as I do study daily, have the advantage of participating in international congresses where these topics are debated and have conducted menopause appointments for over 8 years in which I know the undeniable benefits that the bioidentical hormones can have on women, as I only use these (and they are not manipulated).“Being against” can only reveal the lack of knowledge or non-critical sense to what is being said.