Breast Cancer Causes And Health Effects

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Some women develop breast cancer a result of their recent or previous use of hormone replacement therapy. Hormone replacement therapy was used frequently by women going through menopause to help with relief of unpleasant symptoms such as fatigue, hot flashes, and loss of bone. The type of hormone replacement therapy that increases an individual's breast cancer risk the most is called combination HRT, made from estrogen and progesterone. Even when combination HRT is used for just a short time, it increases an individual's risk of developing breast cancer by seventy-five percent. 

The risk for breast cancer is at its highest between the first two and three years of using combination HRT. When a woman stops using combination HRT, it takes a minimum of two years for the risk of breast cancer to drop back down to an average level. The other type of HRT called estrogen-only HRT has shown to increase an individual's chance of developing breast cancer if they use it for over ten years. Regardless of whether the HRT products used are natural, synthetic, or bioidentical, the risk of developing breast cancer is consistent across all three variations.