HRT! My social media feeds are full of it. Sometimes that’s hard.
HRT isn’t an option for women who have had hormone positive breast cancer
In this photo, I am on HRT. I was 45 and finally feeling good. Full of life in fact. I had taken a long time to decide to try HRT. I didn’t want to but the perimenopause symptoms had got the better of me. I needed help.
Little did I know that I was already carrying around a lump of cancer in my breast. And that I was probably adding fuel to the fire and making it grow faster than perhaps it would have done otherwise. Feeding my cancer oestrogen and progesterone was like pouring alcohol on a fire.
But I didn’t know.
Do I feel guilty? A little.
But not much. I didn’t know. And I only took it for 6 months before I was diagnosed with cancer. It wasn’t the cause. The cancer would have been there already.
There is so much noise in the media about HRT and menopause. And I’m all for it.
There is also now a movement for women who have had breast cancer or other gynaecological cancers to go on HRT. In spite of their cancer. Which in the case of triple negative breast cancer or for women who have perhaps had their ovaries out after ovarian cancer, I can see why. If there’s no known link with oestrogen, why not?
I am very in favour of doing what we can to improve quality of life, longevity, sleep, brain and heart health.
I have even read accounts of women who have hormone positive breast cancer who still choose HRT and quality of life over the risk of recurrence. Which I think is brave.
But it’s not for me.
My cancer was 💯 oestrogen and progesterone positive. Which means that female hormones are like rocket fuel for my cancer. I will do absolutely everything I can to remove those hormones - they were trying to kill me.
If that means premature ageing, increased risk of heart disease, dementia, osteoporosis, so be it. I’ll do whatever is in my power to prevent, or at least delay, those things happening with lifestyle choices - nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress reduction.
But for me going back on HRT is not on the cards. I want to do everything I can to see my kids grow up.