ERT had become HRT, at least for women who still had an intact uterus. In 1995, the results of the largest study to date were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Postmenopausal women using HRT for five or more years have a 30-40 percent greater risk of developing breast cancer than do women who do not use hormones. On the other hand, HRT users have a 29 percent reduction in colon cancer risk. HRT has also been linked with an increase in the risk of ovarian cancer.
Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect until it is relatively far advanced.
HRT was also implicated in a variety of other health problems, ranging from asthma to high blood pressure. Thus, the fountain of youth has its own risks. A 1995 study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reported that women on HRT were 50 percent more likely to develop adult-onset asthma than those who did not take hormones. The negative aspects of HRT are usually dismissed by its proponents with the argument that since more women die from heart disease than breast or ovarian cancer, and since HRT protects against osteoporosis and colon cancer, a woman is still better off with HRT in the long run, unless she has a family history of breast cancer. For many people this is not a consolation.