Estrogen Replacement in Menopause. NCI
 

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="center">Slide 22

</td><td>http://www.cancer.gov/images/spacer.gif</td><td align="left" height="100%" valign="center" width="1">http://www.cancer.gov/images/red-px.gif</td><td>http://www.cancer.gov/images/spacer.gif</td><td align="left" valign="center" width="100%">Estrogen Replacement in Menopause

</td><td class="pptRightNav" align="right" valign="center"> http://www.cancer.gov/images/UC-leftarrow.gif<img alt="Next Section >" src="http://www.cancer.gov/images/UC-rightarrow.gif" border="0"></td></tr></tbody></table>In addition to their relevance for cancer treatment and prevention, SERMs may also be potentially important for women who have passed through menopause and therefore produce little estrogen.
The lack of estrogen in postmenopausal women is linked to several health problems. For example, estrogen has positive effects on blood vessels and on bones. After menopause, though, women are at increased risk for heart disease and for osteoporosis, a weakening of the bones that causes them to become more vulnerable to fractures.
To counteract these potential problems, some postmenopausal women take hormone pills containing estrogen to strengthen bones and help control other menopausal symptoms. But, as a consequence, such women are subjecting themselves to the harmful effects of estrogen--namely, an increased risk for invasive breast cancer and uterine cancer.
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Re: Estrogen Replacement in Menopause. NCI
 

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="center">Slide 23

</td><td>http://www.cancer.gov/images/spacer.gif</td><td align="left" height="100%" valign="center" width="1">http://www.cancer.gov/images/red-px.gif</td><td>http://www.cancer.gov/images/spacer.gif</td><td align="left" valign="center" width="100%">Estrogen Plus Progestin Replacement

</td><td class="pptRightNav" align="right" valign="center"> http://www.cancer.gov/images/UC-leftarrow.gif<img alt="Next Section >" src="http://www.cancer.gov/images/UC-rightarrow.gif" border="0"></td></tr></tbody></table>Studies carried out in the 1980s suggested that adding the hormone progesterone to estrogen could offset the increased risk of uterine cancer linked to the use of estrogen by itself. For this reason, hormone replacement therapy using estrogen plus progestin (a synthetic form of progesterone) became a common way of treating women with menopausal symptoms.
However, a study of 16,000 menopausal women carried out by the Women’s Health Initiative was prematurely halted in 2002 when preliminary results indicated that the harm associated with this type of treatment outweighs the potential benefits. The major risks detected were an increased chance of developing invasive breast cancer, as well as an increased risk of strokes, heart attacks, and blood clots. While the data also revealed that hormone replacement with estrogen plus progestin lowered the risk of osteoporosis and colon cancer, these benefits were not considered to be sufficient to outweigh the other risks.
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