At menopause, oestrogen levels drop substantially and progesterone levels fall to almost zero. Women who use hormone replacement therapy to alleviate menopause symptoms face an increased risk of developing breast cancer, even if they only use the treatment for a short time — and the elevated risk can last more than 10 years after they stop taking the hormones. HRT can raise breast cancer risk from an estimated 6.3 per cent to 8.3 per cent Experts urge caution and say women need to weigh up individual risk factors versus symptom relief A major international review published in the Lancet has confirmed that breast cancer risk increases the longer hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is used, and risk is greater with combined oestrogen-progestogen therapy than oestrogen-only therapy. But the study, which combined data from more than 100,000 women with breast cancer from 58 studies worldwide, also revealed something new. For the […]