Hormone Replacement Therapy Is A Treatment That Is Designed To Replace A Womans Depleted Hormone Levels.
A woman's ovaries are responsible for producing estrogen and progesterone during her reproductive years.
As a woman grows older, however, her body begins to produce less estrogen and progesterone. This usually tends to happen around the age of 50 years, and is often referred to as the menopause.
The body finds it difficult to adjust to these depleting levels of estrogen during this time and as a consequence, many women will find themselves suffering from problems such as hot flashes, excessive night sweats, vaginal dryness, problems with sleeping etc.
HRT (hormone replacement therapy) consists of synthetic estrogen and progesterone and it tries to "replace" these missing hormones. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that a woman's life is restored back to the same level and quality of life that she had before she started the menopause, however, HRT has been found to considerably alleviate some, if not many, of the problems experienced by Woman who is going through the menopause and all the problems associated with it.
Many older research studies into HRT have shown that could be beneficial in the prevention of heart disease, osteoporosis, depression and short-term memory loss, that is all those problems that post-menopausal women may suffer from. However, the more recent research reports do not paint such a rosy picture of HRT and instead
have indicated that not only is it possible that HRT does not provide these benefits but that it could pose other risks as well. These risks tend to be an increased likelihood of ovarian cancer, especially with long-term use and in some cases, cancer of the uterine lining.
There is also a controversial link between HRT and breast cancer with some studies showing that there is only a minimal risk of breast cancer amongst women who are on HRT whilst at the same time some other studies point to a more significant risk.
Overall, there general consensus is that HRT could possibly increase the likelihood of
breast cancer.
In a similar vein, research studies carried out indicate that a long-term use of HRT (and by this they mean 10 years or more) could increase the risk of ovarian cancer in women.
It is findings like these that give rise to the feeling that having a limited and very short-term usage of HRT can be safe amongst women who do not have a very high risk of breast cancer or other diseases.