Yes, there is some evidence to suggest that hormones can play a role in breast cancer, but it is not a matter of take hormones get breast cancer. There are many other culprits suspected of causing breast cancer in women, among them exposure to radiation, toxic chemicals, pollution, and viruses. Genetics is another factor. And remember, the average woman s risk of either heart disease or osteoporosis far exceeds her risk of developing breast cancer. In truth, even though the incidence of breast cancer is unacceptably high, most women do not develop it.
Statistics show that the incidence of breast cancer begins to go up when women enter their forties.
This is about the same time that progesterone production begins to decline. During the previous twenty-five years of their lives the years when most women are at their healthiest they were producing proportionate amounts of both estrogen and progesterone each month. A study published April 1995 in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility showed that natural progesterone inhibits estrogen s stimulation of normal breast epithelial cells. An earlier study at John Hopkins in 1981 showed that breast cancer was five times higher in women with low progesterone levels than in women with higher levels. There is a great deal of data suggesting that estrogen replacement therapy can provide many different benefits to women as they age.