Hormone Therapy Duration: How Long is Too Long?

Short-Term Use: Generally Safe

Good news for women seeking short-term relief from menopause symptoms: using combined estrogen-progestin therapy for less than 4-5 years doesn't significantly increase breast cancer risk. This finding comes from multiple studies, including the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). For estrogen-only therapy, the WHI found no increased risk with an average use of 5.9 years.

Long-Term Use: Increased Risk

The picture changes with longer use. For combined therapy, risk begins to rise after 3-4 years of use. A meta-analysis found that each year of hormone use increases breast cancer risk by about 2.3%. For estrogen-only therapy, significant risk increase was seen only after 15-20 years of use in some studies. This highlights the importance of regularly reassessing the need for continued hormone therapy.

Risk After Stopping

Encouragingly, the increased risk doesn't seem to persist long after stopping hormone therapy. Most studies show that women who stopped therapy more than 5 years ago have a similar risk to those who never used hormones, regardless of how long they used them. However, more research is needed on very long-term past users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

While short-term hormone therapy use appears safe for most women, longer use requires careful consideration of individual risks and benefits.

Related Articles

• Is Hormone Therapy Linked to Breast Cancer Risk?
• How Does Hormone Therapy Affect Mammogram Results?
• Estrogen vs. Estrogen-Progestin: Which Hormone Therapy is Safer?
• Who Should (and Shouldn't) Consider Hormone Therapy?

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