Many women take postmenopausal hormones (also known as hormone replacement therapy) to relieve menopausal symptoms. While hormone use can decrease the risk of some diseases (such as osteoporosis), these benefits are outweighed by an increase in the risk of other conditions (more) [65-67].
For breast cancer survivors, avoiding postmenopausal hormones may be even more important than for other women. Survivors have an increased risk of getting a second breast cancer and postmenopausal hormone use increases the risk of breast cancer. However, whether postmenopausal hormone use affects survival in women with breast cancer is not yet known. One randomized clinical trial was stopped because the survivors who were taking postmenopausal hormones had greater numbers of local recurrence, distant metastases and second breast cancers than survivors not taking hormones [68].
Currently, the best choice for most breast cancer survivors is to avoid the use of postmenopausal hormones [69]. Women should discuss this issue with their health care provider. For more on postmenopausal hormones, see the Risk Factors and Prevention section.
