THE NEWS.
Bayer Laboratories should be available within a year a new treatment for menopause symptoms. Unlike the main treatments prescribed until now, this one will not contain hormones. A hope, then, since in the early 2000s, several studies had shown that taking them in the treatment of menopause increased the risk of breast cancer in particular.
A look back at 50 years of prescription and disaffection for hormone replacement therapy.
THE ARCHIVES.
The popular treatment, hormone replacement therapy, consisted, according to Henri Rozenbaum, of providing “ from the outside ” hormones that stop being produced from a certain age. And helped to eliminate the symptoms of menopause, ” hot flashes, bone decalcification, alteration of the skin and mucous membranes whose dryness can block sexual intercourse ».
Taking hormones, the doctor said, often worried his patients. But, he reassured, “ The administration of hormones in very high doses and female hormones alone, that is to say folliculins or estrogens, could be dangerous. But at present, we give treatments which are replacement treatments, that is to say we give very low doses, very close to the doses physiologically secreted by an ovary. »
No danger, therefore, especially since taking this medication required appointments that allowed, it was assured, to work on preventive medicine and detect cancers and other conditions well in advance. Hormone replacement therapy was thus widely prescribed.
Risk/benefit questioning
And yet, in the early 2000s, several studies came to question the benefit/risk ratio of the treatment. In particular, as Inserm specifies this on its website« This treatment was discredited in 2002, following the publication of the American WHI (Women Health Study) study which mentioned its association with an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases (heart attack, stroke, venous thrombosis) ” On television, however, the results of this study were nuanced by doctors, as we hear below. First, “ I think that these treatments are a great help for women who have a difficult menopause. In other circumstances, we may need to think about whether we have a particular risk, in particular. » on breast cancer. Or again: « The treatments used in the United States are different from those used in France. They are neither the same estrogens nor the same progestins. ».
