A recent study published in the archives of Internal Medicine found that the low dose of Estrotab protected against bone loss as well as the higher dose. That sounded good to the woman s group. The idea of going on something light was very, very appealing to me because I m scared, like all of us are scared. But Streicher says half as much estrogen does not necessarily mean half as much risk for breast cancer. Because we don t know, first of all, absolutely that estrogen increases the risk of breast cancer, it appears that in certain populations it might, and we certainly don t know whether it s dose-related or not.
Many people say, well, it stands to reason if one dose causes it, then a lower dose won t cause it.
But that s really not evidence-based. But Epstein doesn t like anything that adds to the estrogen levels in women s bodies. We have the clear evidence from the fact that women are being exposed to more estrogens than ever before from sources including hormone replacement therapy, the pill, from some pesticides that have weak estrogenic effects, and also, very, very importantly but unrecognized by the American public at large from meat, because meat contains very significant levels of sex hormones, particularly estrogens. So from birth till death women are exposed to estrogens in a wide range of different forms. So despite new studies and new drugs, women still have no clear-cut answers.