Breast cancer and hormonal supplements in postmenopausal women

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Abstract
Hormone supplements are clearly effective in relieving menopausal symptoms and preventing osteoporosis if taken for long enough. Do these and the putative protective effect on coronary heart disease1 make them the most important advance in preventive medicine in the past 50 years?2 Endometrial cancer is a serious problem with unopposed oestrogen, and, assuming that the protection from heart disease is real, breast cancer might still be a serious problem with either oestrogen or combined (opposed) preparations. How might these considerations balance out for a woman wanting to understand the benefits and risks? For a 50 year old woman the baseline lifetime risk of coronary heart disease is around 45%, of hip fracture is 15%, and of breast cancer is 8%. Clearly, such aggregate data will weigh differentially with the potential relief of symptoms, prevention …