Bio identical HRT Lozenges made by compounding pharmacies and marketed as safer and natural have been linked to cancer.

At the university of NSW in Australia 3 cases were uncovered of women taking the lozenges developing endometrial cancer.  They were 54, 59 and 71 years old repetively.

HRT use has dropped in the US by 41% according a recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute but the use of alternatives has increased

Questions to Doctor Robert N Hoover, MD, PhD, Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program in the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute at the NIH's Director's Wednesday afternoon lecture series – May 16, 2007 – “Hormones and Breast Cancer”

Question:
I was wondering if you think breast cancer in men has anything to say about the hormonal hypothesis in women.

Answer:
Breast cancer in men has been ill-studied obviously.  It's a sample size problem.  I must say that the androgen hypothesis killing off stem cells sound like awfully good reason why males don't get breast cancer.  The whole gender effect would be difficult to separate it from other things. There have been case reports of men developing breast cancer who were on estrogen hormones for one reason or another.  I suspect it has some common causal elements with that in women but it's just not well enough studied to know.

Questions to Doctor Robert N Hoover, MD, PhD, Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program in the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute at the NIH's Director's Wednesday afternoon lecture series – May 16, 2007 – “Hormones and Breast Cancer”

Question: Is the higher level of estrol levels in western women different (from Asian women) because of the diet, or enzymes, genetics or some combination?

Answer: Nobody knows the answer because nobody has been investigating them in the human population. There has been some speculation that it may not be genetically driven but that it may be environmentally driven. If it is, it would be a big help because it might give us a clue as to what really is the cause for (estrol) rates being so much lower in China than they are here (in the US).

A study titled, “Role of Estrogens in Postmenopausal Obesity and Hypertension” by Lourdes A. Fortepiani and Huimin Zhang from the University of Texas Health Science Center found estrogen depletion may lead to Obesity induced high blood pressure.

Source and more info: www.the-aps.org/press/journal/07/44.htm

Balance your own estrogen, the safe way - "Natural Plant Hormones Provide Menopause Relief"

In a study of 2,123 post-menopausal women (the Oslo Health Study), showed a link between smoking and the early onset of menopause.  The study also showed the early a woman quits smoking the more protected she is from early menopause.  Alcohol, coffee consumption, and passive smoking did not show a significant association.

Read more about early onset of menopause at Pre Menopause Will Take You On A Roller Coaster Ride

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) could be harmful, notably increasing the risk of heart attacks and breast cancer.  Are there alternatives?

See The Great Debate Over Hormone Replacement Therapy/

There are 40 million post-menopausal women in the US alone.  What should you expect?  See "Run For Your Life - I’ve Gone Menopausal"

Healthy women going through early menopause may be able to use hormones short term with out serious health risks. Older women who begin hormone therapy years after menopause to prevent chronic diseases may increase their risk of blood clots and heart disease.

Researchers are still trying to determine the effects of taking hormone therapy for long periods beginning in the early stages of menopause. Some data suggests the health risks are lower for these women, but more studies are needed.

Read more at Women's Health Research