Female Hormone Therapy Shown to be Safe

The massive Women’s Health Initiative from Harvard showed that postmenopausal women who had hysterectomies and took estrogen had a lower incidence of breast cancer than those who took placebos. This should be comforting to those who take hormone replacement for an average of 6 years to control disturbing menopausal symptoms. Two important caveats: avoid synthetic progestins (Provera), which are dangerous, and I believe that natural hormones from soy or yams are safer yet than Premarin, which is an extract from horse urine. See Lancet on line, March 6, 2012.