menopausal hormone therapy

BACKGROUND: There has been some doubts raised in earlier studies about the efficacy of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in reducing endocrine and sexual problems in women who have undergone a risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO). METHODS: In this prospective, observational study, we recruited 178 premenopausal women with a high risk for ovarian cancer. Fifty-seven women opted for RRSO and 121 for gynaecological screening (GS). Women completed questionnaires before surgery (T1) and 3 (T2) and 9 (T3) months post surgery, or at equivalent time points for the GS-group...

BACKGROUND: Prolonged sitting and lower levels of physical activity have been associated with increased levels of parent oestrogens (oestrone and oestradiol), the key hormones in female cancers, in postmenopausal women. However, it is unknown whether sitting and physical activity are associated with circulating oestrogen metabolite levels. METHODS: Among 1804 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, 15 serum oestrogens/oestrogen metabolites were quantified using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry...

INTRODUCTION: This study analyzes peripheral blood samples from breast cancer (BC) patients. CTCs from peripheral blood were enriched by size-based separation and were then cultivated in vitro. The primary aim of this study was to demonstrate the antigen independent CTC separation method with high CTC recovery. Subsequently, CTCs enriched several times during the treatment were characterized molecularly. METHODS: Patients with different stages of BC (N = 167) were included into the study...

Five years of adjuvant therapy with anti-estrogens reduce the incidence of disease progression by about 50% in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer patients, but late relapse can still occur after that anti-estrogens have been discontinued. In these patients, excessive androgen production may account for renewed excessive estrogen formation and increased risk of late relapse. In the 50% of patients who do not benefit with anti-estrogens, the effect of therapy is limited by de novo or acquired resistance to treatment...

The estrogen receptors (ERs) ERα and ERβ are important factors in breast cancer progression. Nevertheless, the molecular interplay between ERα and ERβ and its clinical significance in breast cancer is controversial. The establishment of a clear association is required; therefore, the current study analyzed the expression patterns of ERα and ERβ in 32 breast tumor tissues using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and the Ki-67 status were detected by immunohistochemistry...

PURPOSE: To retrospectively investigate the quantitative background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) of the contralateral normal breast in patients with unilateral invasive breast cancer throughout multiple monitoring points of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to further determine whether BPE is associated with tumor response, especially at the early stage of NAC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 90 patients with unilateral breast cancer who then received six or eight cycles of NAC before surgery were analyzed retrospectively...

BACKGROUND: The increasing number and older age of women Veterans receiving care at Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requires healthcare providers to adjust to their changing patient population. We explored women Veterans' self-reported knowledge of menopause, current/preferred sources of menopausal health information, and perceptions/barriers regarding treatment of menopausal symptoms. METHODS: Three focus groups were conducted at two South Florida VHA facilities in 2014, which included 30 women Veterans (aged 45-60 years) who visited VHA primary care clinics at least once in the past year...

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Draft Recommendation statement on Menopausal Hormone Therapy: Primary Prevention for Chronic Diseases, released in May 2017, perpetuates a major disconnect between the primary population affected, women within roughly 10 years of menopause, and the data cited. Furthermore, major elements of the evidence relied upon have been misinterpreted or misstated, particularly in regard to coronary heart disease and breast cancer, for which there is no statistically significant evidence of harm...

The worlds of observational, clinical and basic science collided in 2002 with the publication of results of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a large scale, prospective, blinded, randomized-controlled trial designed to provide evidence regarding use of hormone treatment to prevent cardiovascular disease in menopausal women. The results of the WHI dramatically changed clinical practice, negatively impacted funding for hormone research and left scientists to unravel the "why" of the results. Now over a decade and a half since the initial publication of the WHI results, basic and clinical scientists often do not interpret the results of the WHI with the precision needed to move the science forward...

Natural aging brings reduced production of growth and sex hormones, beginning in middle age, with noticeable physiologic changes by the sixth or seventh decade of life: reduced muscle mass, energy, and exercise capacity and alterations in sexual function. Hormones and hormone precursors have been investigated to delay changes in body composition, strength, and physical and cognitive function. Menopausal hormone therapy is effective for vasomotor and genitourinary symptoms. Testosterone is effective in men with hypogonadism and declines in physiologic function...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence and factors associated with hormone therapy (HT) use among Canadian women. METHODS: Baseline data from the Tracking cohort of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) was used for this analysis. The main outcome was HT use among women aged 45-85 years, defined as current, past, and never users. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine the differences between current, past, and never HT users in terms of sociodemographic, health behavior, and health-related variables...

Antidepressants are widely prescribed among women to treat depression and anxiety disorders, but studies of their effects on gynecological cancer risk are sparse. We assessed associations between various antidepressants and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. By using Danish nationwide registers, we identified all women (cases) aged 30 to 84 years with incident epithelial (serous, endometrioid, clear cell or mucinous) ovarian cancer during 2000-2011 (n= 4,103) and matched each case to 20 population controls (n=58,706) by risk-set matching...

AIM: We aimed to assess the overall cancer risk among contemporary menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) users in Sweden and the risk for different cancer types. METHODS: A nationwide Swedish population-based cohort study including all 290,186 women aged ≥ 40 years having used systemic MHT during the study period (July 2005 and December 2012), compared with the Swedish female background population. MHT ever-use (all MHT, oestrogen-only MHT [E-MHT] and oestrogen plus progestin MHT [EP-MHT]) was based on the nationwide Prescribed Drug Registry...

In previous centuries many women did not even live until their menopause years due to poor economic conditions, deficiencies of medicine, epidemics and wars. Nowadays in the developed countries, people live until they are 75-80 years old, and with the expansion of average age, the number of people affected by menopause and the years spent in that state increase. Nowadays women spend one third of their lives in the menopausal stage. The only effective way to treat unpleasant symptoms for centuries was with the use of herbs, and the knowledge about them spread through oral tradition...

The neuroprotectant and memory enhancer supplement for menopause is required due to the side effects of hormone replacement therapy. Since purple waxy corn cob and pandan leaves exert antioxidant and acetylcholinesterase inhibition (AChEI) effects, we hypothesized that the combined extract of both plants (PCP) might provide synergistic effect leading to the improved brain damage and memory impairment in experimental menopause. To test this hypothesis, female Wistar rats were ovariectomized bilaterally and orally given various doses of the functional drink at doses of 20, 40, and 80 mg/kg for 28 days...

There were ~986,000 cases of head and neck cancer (HNC) and oesophageal cancer diagnosed worldwide in 2012. The incidence of these types of cancer is much higher in males than females, although this disparity decreases in the elderly population, suggesting a role for hormones as a risk factor. This systematic review investigates the potential role of female hormones [age at menopause and use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT)] as risk factors for HNC/oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The electronic databases MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE and Cochrane were searched...

OBJECTIVES: Osteoporosis has become an increasing concern for older people as it may potentially lead to osteoporotic fractures. This study is designed to assess the efficacy and safety of ten therapies for post-menopausal women using network meta-analysis. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search in several databases, including PubMed and Embase. A random-effects model was employed and results were assessed by the odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI)...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the phytoestrogenic effects of Schizandra chinensis (SC) extract by regulating the activation of estrogen receptor. METHODS: Western blotting assay was performed to investigate the effect of SC extract (1, 10, 100 μg/mL) on the expression of estrogen receptor (ER)-α and -β in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Cell viability and the levels of c-fos and c-Jun were analyzed by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and Western blot analysis, respectively, to further confirm the anti-cancer effect of SC extract...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to discuss the available energy sources used in the vaginal canal that are currently being promoted for certain pelvic floor conditions and explore the body of peer-reviewed literature supporting their use. RECENT FINDINGS: The majority of research has focused on the use of fractional CO2 laser treatment for genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). Most of these studies are nonrandomized prospective studies, but their data consistently shows an improvement in symptoms without significant side effects...

PURPOSE: To study the distribution of breast mammogram density in Lebanese women and correlate it with breast cancer (BC) incidence. METHODS: Data from 1,049 women who had screening or diagnostic mammography were retrospectively reviewed. Age, menopausal status, contraceptives or hormonal replacement therapy (HRT), parity, breastfeeding, history of BC, breast mammogram density, and final BI-RADS assessment were collected. Breast density was analyzed in each age category and compared according to factors that could influence breast density and BC incidence...