The incidence of most cancers increases with age, especially from middle age onward, so today cancer can be considered an age-related disease. One of the keys to healthy and successful aging is reducing the advent of serious disabilities caused by diseases related to aging. One of the cornerstones of anti-aging is hormone replacement therapy to treat age-related diseases caused by sex hormone deficiency in women. However, there are many studies that question the relationship between hormone replacement therapies with cancer recurrence. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has the potential to affect both quality of life and survival in menopausal women. Although data in the literature is controversial, many clinicians remain reluctant to write HRT for gynecologic cancer patients due to fear of relapse but HRT does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of relapse in ovarian and endometrial cancer survivors, especially when used for a short period of time.

An information guide to information on the subject of menopause.

Few topics in women's medicine today are as fraught with confusion and controversy as the question of appropriate treatment for menopausal symptoms and the prevention of negative long term health outcomes common to post-menopausal women. Cardiovascular disease (CVD), osteoporosis, and cancer -- the most common causes of death, disability and impaired quality of life for women -- can potentially be prevented or forestalled by dietary, behavioral, and drug interventions. A better understanding of the natural history of the menopause is critical to providing better care. If women and their physicians have a better understanding of predictors of risk, they could make more informed decisions about interventions related to menopausal symptoms, CVD, osteoporosis and gynecologic and breast cancer. Few other recently introduced medical interventions have as great a potential of affecting morbidity and mortality as does hormone replacement therapy (HRT). HRT has produced effect on health risk: some are reduced, some are raised, and some uncertain, and these data are interpreted differently by various scientific, medical and consumer groups.

A compelling, “fascinating” (Robert Cialdini) defense of hormone replacement therapy, exposing the faulty science behind its fall from prominence and giving women the evidence they need to make informed decisions about their health. Now fully revised and updated. "Estrogen Matters was my antidote to the misinformation surrounding menopause. This book should be the bible for every single person going through menopause.”―Naomi Watts For years, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was the medically approved way to alleviate menopausal symptoms (ranging from hot flushes to brain fog) and reduce the risk of heart disease, Alzheimer's, and osteoporosis. But when a large study by the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) announced, with national fanfare, that women taking HRT had an increased risk of breast cancer, women were scared off, and the treatment was abandoned. Now, Dr. Bluming, a medical oncologist, and Dr. Tavris, a social psychologist, reveal the true story of the WHI’s efforts to distort their data to exaggerate unsupported claims of estrogen’s harms. Important updates in this edition include: Evidence that demolishes the WHI’s claim that HRT causes breast cancer. A list of the WHI’s retractions of their original scare stories. Updated findings on estrogen’s benefits on heart, brain, bones, and longevity. A critical review of the alternative products and medications being marketed to treat symptoms of menopause. A sobering and revelatory read, Estrogen Matters sets the record straight on estrogen’s benefits, providing a light to guide women through this inevitable phase of life.

Removing the shroud of complexity that had engulfed the field of menopause research and management for more than a decade, this unique, case-based resource discusses a range of topics relevant to the reproductive health of the aging female. The opening section includes chapters covering the symptomatology, epidemiology and impact of the menopausal burden, and reviews in depth the most current evidence on the efficacy, risks and benefits of pharmacological and alternative therapies. Utilizing vibrant case material, the second section details common symptoms of menopause and an individualized approach to management, such as sleep loss, skeletal fragility, sexual dysfunction, hirsutism and alopecia, primary ovarian insufficiency and failure, and vasomotor symptoms. Chapters reviewing therapeutic options and considerations tailored to gynecologic and breast cancer patients and survivors comprise the third and final section. Developed as a multidisciplinary collaboration and addressing the needs of practicing reproductive medicine clinicians and researchers providing care to an aging female population, Essentials of Menopause Management provides clear, up-to-date information and recommendations on the range of current treatment strategies for menopause and its symptoms.

The clinical benefits of hormone replacement therapy in women have to be carefully balanced against the possible risks, and a particular theoretical concern relates to risks associated with various forms of female oncology. Because of conflicting reports, gynecologists and oncologists especially need a single, authoritative resource of up-to-date information. Hormone Replacement Therapy and Cancer, published in association with the International Menopause Society, provides the very consensus statement that clinicians need in this difficult and complex area. Many of the world's leading specialists have contributed important chapters that provide state-of-the-art knowledge about the effects of hormones on women and possible cancer risks. The introductory section deals with carcinogenesis, and the other main sections cover HRT and breast cancer, endometrial cancer, colon cancer, melanoma and epithelial ovarian cancer. The concluding chapters discuss the benefits and risks of sp ecific therapies. An authoritative clinical reference with extensive bibliographic references and index, Hormone Replacement Therapy and Cancer covers all aspects of HRT and cancer based on the research available up to June 2001.