Your Health: Jul. 29, 2002

MORE HORMONE BLUES The bad news about hormone-replacement therapy just keeps pouring in. Not only has long-term HRT been associated with blood clots, heart attacks and breast cancer, but last week it was linked to cancer of the ovaries as well. A 20-year study found that postmenopausal women taking estrogen alone were 60% more likely to develop ovarian cancer than women who took no hormones–and that the risk increased the longer they took it. The researchers noted, however, that HRT preparations today differ from earlier formulations and that in the past, long-term treatment involved higher average daily doses of estrogen than those currently recommended.

GOT MILK? Doctors have long known that breast-feeding is good for baby and for Mom. Here’s one more reason: an analysis of nearly 50 studies involving 150,000 women in 30 countries found that the number of children women bear and how long they breast-feed may help determine their chance of developing breast cancer. Women who had six or seven children and breast-fed each for two years had cancer rates less than half those of women who had two or three children and breast-fed them for only two months. But women with few children can still reduce their cancer risk 5% by breast-feeding their babies another six months–no mean feat in our busy world. –By David Bjerklie

Sources: J.A.M.A.; Lancet