Hormone therapy: The risk-benefit tightrope
Women must balance heart disease protection and breast cancer risk.
It was a shock several years ago when results from a large, government-funded study called the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) showed that postmenopausal women who took hormones were more likely to have heart problems than those who didn't. Previous research had pointed to both risks and benefits from hormone therapy. The risks? Stroke, blood clots in the veins that could potentially travel to the lungs (pulmonary emboli), and most of all, breast cancer — all were more likely with hormone therapy.
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