Yesterday, the television news was on in the background as I sat at my computer working. I heard a male newscaster say, "Hooray for HRT!" I stopped to listen to what he meant by the lead-in announcement to the story, because frankly, I thought perhaps he had lost all sense of objectivity. But indeed, he was reporting on the results of a new study, which is part of the NIH-funded Women's Health Initiative, that suggests postmenopausal women who take estrogen as a hormone replacement therapy do not have an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

HRT is most often prescribed to relieve menopausal symptoms, and to protect the heart and bones from damage resulting from the natural loss of estrogen women experience during and after menopause. Menopausal symptoms can be major, and for many women, limiting when it comes to quality of life. But for women at risk, or diagnosed with, estrogen-positive breast cancer, HRT would seem, by all rational consideration, not a smart choice.

We have been told that hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women can lead to increased risks for breast cancer. We have been told that hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women does not lead to increased risks for breast cancer. So, is it safe? Or is it dangerous? I don't know, but as a woman with estrogen-positive breast cancer, I am not going to the take a chance by introducing any more estrogen into my body, and frankly, I cannot imagine a doctor who would prescribe it as a therapy for me. To find more in depth information, go here.