[AlaskaAngel]

Hi Joan,

I'm glad you posted the study and your feelings about it. The study is a start in trying to understand the relationship of HRT and breast cancer.

It raises more questions.

1. How much does having had a hysterectomy affect the potential development of breast cancer -- and how much of a difference does leaving the ovaries in or taking them out at that time make?

2. Is ERT genuinely risky? Or is it the addition of progesterone to HRT that increases the risk? Or is the problem related to the use of a synthetic progesterone made from horse mare urine rather than a natural progesterone the basis for the problem?

3. As Dr. Manson asks, do women who take hormones early in menopause have the same risks as women who started the drugs later?

To find the answers, it takes having women actively put in the effort to push for the studies and to take part in them.

I had a hysterectomy and left my ovaries in, and was diagnosed a few years later, and I have never taken HRT... but my diagnosis was stage I. Was the difference in stage of diagnosis between yours and mine different because of the ERT, perhaps due to the question of increased breast density? (My breast density was also high and being pre- to perimenopausal at age 50 also made my diagnosis difficult.)

Until they can answer some of these questions the only thing they know is that HRT increases the risk.

A.A.