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American Morning
House Call: Another Warning About Hormone Replacement Therapy
Aired June 25, 2003 - 07:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is yet another warning sign about hormones that millions of American women take to treat the effects of menopause. A new study has found that estrogen/progestin pills may cause an aggressive form of breast cancer. I'm having trouble with the words this morning.
Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is at CNN Center with more in our morning "House Call."
Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
About three million American women. That number is actually down now since all of the warnings about hormone replacement therapy came out over the last couple of years. Certainly a lot of people have seen these warnings now linking hormone replacement therapy to all sorts of different things. Now, Daryn, as you correctly said, one of the largest studies, a study of over 16,000 women looking at some of the effects of hormone replacement therapy, specifically on breast cancer.
Now, what we already knew was that hormone replacement therapy likely increases the risk of breast cancer. But they're also -- we already knew that, about a 24 percent increased link. They're also finding out is that there is usually a later diagnosis of the breast cancer in women who took hormone replacement therapy. This is significant because the tumors were often bigger, 1.7 centimeters versus 1.5 centimeters, in women who were taking the hormone replacement therapy. And they had also more likely spread before they were diagnosed in the women who were taking the HRT.
They also found that the progestin in the combination hormone replacement therapy also led to increased density in a women's breast, oftentimes giving them abnormal mammograms, even making those mammograms more difficult to detect the breast cancer.
So, this is not good news, Daryn, as you correctly said, about women who took hormone replacement therapy and their likelihood of not only getting breast cancer, but possibly a more invasive form of it -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Well, since this bad news has come out over the last year, I think you were saying 50 percent of the women who were on HRT have now stopped doing it. Yet, there still are a lot of women out there who insist they are helped by hormone replacement therapy. What are the benefits that are still left? GUPTA: Yes, I mean, there certainly are benefits. And if you just take a step backwards for a second, Daryn, when hormone replacement therapy first started becoming popular, the thought was simple. It was this: That women, as they go through menopause, don't have as much estrogen/progestin anymore, and they started to develop all of these various diseases. So, if you simply replaced it, hormone replacement therapy, you might counteract some of these diseases.
That's obviously panning out not to be true, but it still does help a lot of the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and sleep disturbance. And women who are just plagued by some of these severe symptoms still use the hormone replacement therapy to try and counteract that. Low doses, short durations, I think that's the advice if you have to take it.
KAGAN: Sanjay, thank you. We'll see you in the next hour with a topic on men's health.
GUPTA: That's right. All right, some good news there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Therapy>
Aired June 25, 2003 - 07:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is yet another warning sign about hormones that millions of American women take to treat the effects of menopause. A new study has found that estrogen/progestin pills may cause an aggressive form of breast cancer. I'm having trouble with the words this morning.
Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is at CNN Center with more in our morning "House Call."
Sanjay, good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
About three million American women. That number is actually down now since all of the warnings about hormone replacement therapy came out over the last couple of years. Certainly a lot of people have seen these warnings now linking hormone replacement therapy to all sorts of different things. Now, Daryn, as you correctly said, one of the largest studies, a study of over 16,000 women looking at some of the effects of hormone replacement therapy, specifically on breast cancer.
Now, what we already knew was that hormone replacement therapy likely increases the risk of breast cancer. But they're also -- we already knew that, about a 24 percent increased link. They're also finding out is that there is usually a later diagnosis of the breast cancer in women who took hormone replacement therapy. This is significant because the tumors were often bigger, 1.7 centimeters versus 1.5 centimeters, in women who were taking the hormone replacement therapy. And they had also more likely spread before they were diagnosed in the women who were taking the HRT.
They also found that the progestin in the combination hormone replacement therapy also led to increased density in a women's breast, oftentimes giving them abnormal mammograms, even making those mammograms more difficult to detect the breast cancer.
So, this is not good news, Daryn, as you correctly said, about women who took hormone replacement therapy and their likelihood of not only getting breast cancer, but possibly a more invasive form of it -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Well, since this bad news has come out over the last year, I think you were saying 50 percent of the women who were on HRT have now stopped doing it. Yet, there still are a lot of women out there who insist they are helped by hormone replacement therapy. What are the benefits that are still left? GUPTA: Yes, I mean, there certainly are benefits. And if you just take a step backwards for a second, Daryn, when hormone replacement therapy first started becoming popular, the thought was simple. It was this: That women, as they go through menopause, don't have as much estrogen/progestin anymore, and they started to develop all of these various diseases. So, if you simply replaced it, hormone replacement therapy, you might counteract some of these diseases.
That's obviously panning out not to be true, but it still does help a lot of the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and sleep disturbance. And women who are just plagued by some of these severe symptoms still use the hormone replacement therapy to try and counteract that. Low doses, short durations, I think that's the advice if you have to take it.
KAGAN: Sanjay, thank you. We'll see you in the next hour with a topic on men's health.
GUPTA: That's right. All right, some good news there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Therapy>
