Hormones and Breast Cancer Hormones and Breast Cancer.
Breast cancer is probably the disease most feared by Canadian women.
This brochure aims to give women the facts about both breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy so that they can make informed choices about their health. In 1998, almost 20,000 Canadian women developed breast cancer and over 5,000 died of it. Other important factors affecting your risk include age at the time of first menstrual period and pregnancy, delayed menopause, obesity, alcohol intake, smoking and lack of exercise. For example, a 25 -year old woman's current risk is 1 in 19,608, while the risk for a woman aged 65 is 1 in 17. The often quoted 1 in 9 chance of developing breast cancer is the lifelong risk if a woman lives to the age of 85 years.