HRT AND PREVIOUS BREAST CANCER

Women with a previous breast cancer are usually advised against having HRT, although there are exceptions. Occasionally a woman whose breast cancer has been successfully treated, or who is having palliative care for breast cancer, may have such crippling menopausal symptoms that she decides to go onto HRT to get some relief.

Linda, for example, faced this dilemma when she developed severe hot flushes in her late forties. She had been well for fifteen years following a mastectomy and, after discussions with her breast specialist, decided to go ahead with HRT at the minimum dose needed to relieve her symptoms. Linda’s doctor prescribed a natural oestrogen, similar to the oestradiol her ovaries had been secreting until not long before, and kept a close watch on all aspects of her health.

HRT AND PREVIOUS ENDOMETRIAL CANCER

Women with a recently treated endometrial cancer are generally advised not to have HRT. However, several years after successful treatment of early-stage endometrial cancer, hormone therapy incorporating both oestrogen and progestogen may be considered suitable.