Estrogen alone, post-hysterectomy, is not only safe, it lowers breast cancer risk by 23%
The evidence, via the Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Journal, is in. I wish I'd known.
This will be a quickie, just to get this information out there. Once again, I will use my own body as both cautionary tale and object lesson.
In 2012, I had a hysterectomy after sixteen years of suffering from adenomyosis. Which, ugh, my spell check STILL doesn’t accept as real. Same with trachelectomy (cervix removal), which I also had. And so many other words related to the functioning of the female body. Wait, I’ll screenshot this, look:
Just out of curiosity, let’s see if spell check will accept erectile dysfunction without a dotted red line under it. Yup! Anyhoo, the patriarchy is real, and it lives in your spell check. Among other places. Like the science of women’s health.
To wit:
In May of 2012, I had a hysterectomy after suffering for sixteen years from (the very real if not spell-check-accepted) adenomyosis. After this hysterectomy, when I asked about going on HRT, I was told not to because of the risk of breast cancer. So I didn’t. This “risk,” which turned out not to be a risk, was based on findings from the flawed Women’s Health Initiative. A little over a year after my hysterectomy, in the fall of 2013, I found a lump in my breast and was diagnosed with DCIS, aka stage zero breast cancer. Everything worked out fine, I’ve had no lasting issues, but those six months of managing that diagnosis in the midst of personal and professional chaos kind of sucked for all sorts of reasons that readers of the Ladyparts book know well enough that I won’t repeat myself.
Imagine my surprise (jk!), then, upon reading the latest research in The Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Journal, which just published a meta analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials in which women with hysterectomies took estrogen-only HRT1. Not only is estrogen-only hormone treatment safe for the 20 million of us here in the U.S. who’ve had hysterectomies, it lowers our breast cancer risk by a whopping 23%! The researchers’ conclusion, which I will quote, was as follows: “The totality of randomized clinical trial evidence supports a conclusion that estrogen-alone use significantly reduces breast cancer incidence.”
Tldr: if you’ve had a hysterectomy, and you are not currently taking estrogen, and you have no contraindications to taking it, talk to your doctor immediately about getting a prescription for systemic estrogen in either patch or gel form. FYI, if you find the patch itchy, as I did, but your Divigel prescription comes out to a $144 a month copay, as it did with mine, and this does not fit in your monthly budget, you can ask your doctor to send a prescription for Oestrogel to Israelpharm.com, and it will cost you $17 instead and last longer than a month. This is what I do. Oestrogel comes in a giant tube instead of having to open those tiny packets of Divigel, which I always found annoying and difficult with wet fingers after a shower, never mind wasteful. This is what the page looks like, and no, I have not been paid by anyone to say this or share this, I’m just providing the information:
Also, bonus! You can order name brand Vagifem vaginal estrogen tablets from them over the counter without prescription. I do this, too, and I order several boxes at once both for convenience and to get the shipping costs waived.
And now for some quick personal news: I just won a Deadline Club Award for best op-ed of 2023 for my piece in The Daily Beast on the cost of Alzheimer’s care, which I wrote about here.
The winning op-ed, I should note, was rejected by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post before it found a home with the Daily Beast. That’s why I started this Substack. Because the mainstream press keeps rejecting what I consider important stories about women’s health. But I cannot keep writing this publication without your support. In fact, it cost me more to buy the two tickets to that awards ceremony dinner than I earned writing the op-ed, The Daily Beast would not cover this, and no one from the publication came that night to show support. (In contrast, the New York Times bought an entire table for their nominees and editors.)
All this to say, those of you who are paid subscribers, thank you so much. Your support is critical to this work, and without it, I simply could not take the time out of my other professional obligations do it. Those of you who are not paid subscribers, please, if you’re able, consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5 a month or $50 a year by clicking that little button below. If you can’t afford a paid subscription but want one, just email me and ask for one, and I will give it to you, no questions asked. I know what it’s like not having money for things/information/healthcare I need. I would never want any person reading this to feel the same.
We don’t need progesterone to keep us from getting uterine cancer because we no longer have uteri.
Please Deb can you address the dangers/safety of taking estrogen if you are very much past menopause, as am I. Very progressive doctors have advised me against.
Taking estrogen is a decision not to make lightly. Not all women who have had hysterectomies need this. One size does not fit all! It’s concerning that you tell women to run out and get estrogen. I’m speaking as a person who had a total hysterectomy at age 51. Maybe I’m unusual. I did not suffer the effects of instant menopause. No hot flashes, brain fog, etc. Maybe I’d be a few pounds lighter if I took estrogen but there’s other ways to lose weight. Don’t extrapolate your personal experience as advice for everyone else.