HRT After Breast Cancer?

lmarieallen1

I'm really hoping to chat with some ladies out there who have either taken, or considered taking hormones for menopausal symptoms. I was diagnosed last year with Stage 3 IDC that had spread to 8 lymph nodes. It was 95% for both ER and PR. Since I was only 46 at the time, I was unprepared for the sudden "Chemopause". I decided against Tamoxifen and have adopted a pretty extensive supplement program. So hot flashes are pretty minimal, and physically, I'm ok so far, just a little fatigued. It's the mental aspect that really bothers me....the forgetfulness, searching for words, general unmotivated blah feeling about life. I took hormones for about a year pre-diagnosis and felt fabulous! I recently started seeing an integrative MD who prescribes hormones to balance you after breast cancer. I love the way I feel, but I'm scared.  Is there anyone out there who can relate?

suzieq60

I believe that hormone replacement caused my breast cancer. No way that I would forgo Arimidex or Tamoxifen with highly hormone receptive breast cancer - you need to starve it, not feed it. I embrace every hot flush I have because I know my medication is working.

Momine

I know what you mean about the menopause bla feeling. I was 47 at DX (also stage 3), went into chemopause, then ooph, followed by an AI. So, it was sudden and total+ menopause, all in the course of a few months. It took a while, but it has been 2 years now, and I feel pretty good all in all. I challenge myself intellectually in various ways, learning a language, sudoku, reading, discussion groups etc. and I find this has helped a lot. I also exercise every single day, even if it just a good long walk. Personally, I would not even consider HRT.

lightandwind

I continue to be perplexed by the numerous studies now done on estrogen's apotopic effect on breast cancer.

http://cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org/c...

Estradiol is in clinical trials now for breast cancer along w/ an AI. The rationale is that estradiol lowers the amount of estrogen the body makes

http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01385280

"Complete clearing of pleural metastasis" after tamox and AIs failed and estrogen was administered.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC138731...

Earlier stuides

http://tahomaclinicblog.com/estriol-hot-flashes/

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/707910

http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/9692/139119/estradiol/2

http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/20090818

testosterone

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15356405

Fallleaves

Hi, lmarieallen1, I wish I could relate, but I'm too lazy to find a doctor that will do anything other than prescribe me tamoxifen! (Not that I'm taking it.) If you have some misgivings you should definitely ask your doc. what studies he (or she) is relying on. From what I've read there is a big difference in how continuous and sequential HRT affect your body (with sequential being much better) and between synthetic and natural progesterone (with the natural form actually slowing the growth of breast cancer cells). Although, a synthetic form of progesterone, megestrol acetate, is actually used to treat metastatic breast cancer, so I guess synthetic isn't all bad.

I'd really love to hear what your doctor has to say. I imagine he's done plenty of research on the subject.

lmarieallen1

Thank you for all the great info. My doctor feels that estrone, which is produced through aromatization in fat cells and the adrenals, is the most dangerous estrogen. Hence, he wants me to take the Arimidex along with the hormones, so my estrone level will stay low. I also just watched a YouTube video today about using testosterone with Arimidex. That study you cited is mentioned. They actually used to treat mets with estradiol before Tamoxifen came out. 

abigail48

I believe the first tier of birthcontrol tablets I took in mexico in 1964 led to this trouble so many years later.  I was newly married & wasn't getting pregnant;  I was 24.  I heard that if y ou took them after you stopped you would get pregnant.  that they might cause varicose veins, hemmhorroids, thrombosis & breast cysts.  cancer wasn't mentioned.  I immediately got all of them, except, so far, thrombosis.  I stopped taking tablets 10 years later, it turned out that my husband didn't have viable sperm, but I'd been searching for someone who did.  I did get pregnant in 1972, I think, i was sick, broke & the man wasn't good.  I terminated the pregnancy less than 2 weeks later with exercize & hot baths.  no way to tell if I was actually pregnant, but I brought on a very heavy period that way.

Fallleaves

lmarieallen1 and Light, that is very interesting about the testosterone + Arimidex. Here's an article that covers a lot of the positive aspects of natural progesterone, and estriol.

 http://www.holtorfmed.com/the-bioidentical-hormon...