Menopause Symptoms: HRT Can Double Your Risk Of Breast Cancer, Dementia And Stroke... NHR Reveals Safe And Effective Natural Alternatives

Last August, an alarming report in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet finally confirmed what NHR has been saying for years - that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can cause adverse health effects, increasing the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes (Lancet 2003; 362: 419-27).

If you're one of the millions of women in the UK who has been prescribed HRT to help combat your menopause symptoms - which can range from mood swings to hot flushes - you may be worried about this and other recent reports regarding its dangerous side effects.

Or perhaps you've already decided against HRT but are unsure about just how effective the alternative treatments are? No matter where you stand on this controversial issue, this month we're bringing you all the facts about HRT, the menopause and natural ways of treating it, so that you can make up your own mind.

Despite the damning HRT reports, the Government and medical profession are doing nothing
The study reported in The Lancet was carried out by the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK, and tracked more than a million British women aged between 50 and 64 from 1996 to 2001. It showed that HRT actually doubles the risk of breast cancer and raises the risk of heart attacks, blood clots and strokes.

Yet, incredibly, the day after the study was published, the chairman of the Government's Committee on the Safety of Medicines sent out a circular to doctors, saying, 'the results of the study do not necessitate any urgent changes to women's treatment'. By contrast, the reaction of the head of the German Commission on the Safety of Medicines was to describe HRT as 'a national and international tragedy' and to dub it 'the new thalidomide'.

The evidence against HRT has been stacking up for years. The Women's Health Initiative study conducted in the US was intended to track 16,600 women, half of whom were taking oestrogen/progestogen (combination) HRT and the other half a placebo, from 1997 to 2005. But the researchers suddenly halted the study last year because they could already see that the health risks for women taking HRT outweighed any possible benefits.

In particular, the US researchers found that HRT increased stroke risk by 41 per cent, heart disease risk by 29 per cent and breast cancer risk by 26 per cent (JAMA 2002; 288(3): 321-333). Another effect of HRT, that showed up in the same study but was only reported later, is that it more than doubles the risk of senile dementia in women over 65 (JAMA 2003; 289: 2651-62).

Yet again the pharmaceutical industry puts profits before safety
When it first became available, HRT was hailed as a 'wonder drug' that would cut the risk of heart disease and osteoporosis in menopausal women, as well as relieving menopause symptoms. Then the first concerns about cancer emerged over the original, oestrogen-only HRT.

So 'combination' HRT drugs were developed, containing artificial oestrogen combined with an artificial form of the hormone progesterone, called progestogen. Combination HRT was claimed to avoid the health problems of the oestrogen-only drugs. But it was this combined preparation (Prempro) that caused the devastating side effects seen in the Women's Health Initiative study.

You would think that the latest damning evidence against HRT would be enough to get it banned. Without a doubt, thousands of healthy women have died as a direct result of taking HRT. But it's such a big money-earner for the drugs companies that neither they nor the Government's Committee on the Safety of Medicines seem to care.

Herbal supplements provide a safer alternative to HRT
Fortunately, the symptoms associated with the menopause can be safely and effectively controlled, simply by taking natural remedies. For example, certain foods like soya beans, alfalfa and sage, contain natural substances called isoflavones - which are chemically similar to oestrogen and work like HRT, but without the side effects (Optimum Nutrition, 14,1: 36-40, 2001).

Soya is a rich source of the isoflavone genistein, which regulates the part of the brain responsible for oestrogen production, so keeping it in balance (Biofactors 2000; 12(1-4): 233-241). It also preserves calcium in your bones and stimulates the formation of new bone tissue, so protecting against osteoporosis (thinning of the bones), which is aggravated by hormone changes associated with the menopause (J Nutr 1996; 125: 799S). So make soya products a regular part of your diet or take a daily supplement containing 50mg of genistein.

Another plant that is high in isoflavones is red clover. A recent clinical trial in the Netherlands, involving menopausal women suffering from hot flushes five times or more a day, found that taking 80mg of red clover isoflavones each day reduced the frequency of these symptoms by up to 44 per cent. There was no change in terms of the frequency of hot flushes in the group taking a placebo (Maturitas 2002; 42: 187-193).

Other studies suggest that red clover isoflavones may slow bone loss and even boost bone mineral density, so preventing osteoporosis (Menopause 2001; 8: 259-265). Red clover has blood-thinning properties and should be avoided if you're taking anticoagulant drugs.

Black cohosh has also been extensively studied as a herbal treatment for menopause symptoms. At least eight such studies, mostly carried out in Germany and involving approximately 2,000 women, have been published (Altern Ther Health Med 2001; 7: 45-55). Almost all of them showed that black cohosh extract was as effective as oestrogen-only HRT in reducing menopause symptoms. Take 20-40mg a day of the standardised extract.

How natural progesterone cream could put a stop to troublesome symptoms
For many women, taking these supplements is enough to ensure a problem-free menopause. But if symptoms persist, natural progesterone may be the answer. Natural progesterone is manufactured from an extract of the Mexican wild yam and is available (on prescription only in the UK) as a cream that is rubbed into your skin.

Unlike artificial progestogens, it's identical to your body's own progesterone and reduces menopause symptoms in just the same way. It can also prevent and even reverse osteoporosis (Medical Hypotheses, 35: 316-318, 1991).

Whilst other wild yam products available in health food shops may help, because of their isoflavone content, they do not contain natural progesterone. To find out more about natural progesterone send a SAE to 'The Natural Progesterone Information Service', PO Box 24, Buxton, SK 17 9FB.