AP: Estrogen linked to breast lumps

With all the "bonus" estrogen you're getting in the aforementioned patch, not to mention, plastics, cosmetics, the water you drink, please please please do not add in any extra! Note, also that these "benign" breast lumps mean "not yet cancerous." I'm still so mad at our family doc for putting my mother on hormone replacement therapy for decades for no reason other than "it's time" (for more free pens). And her current doc now is telling her she should still consider it, "weigh the risks vs. benefits," estrogen-only HRT is okay, etc. EEEEeeeeeek!

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WASHINGTON - Add another risk to hormone therapy after menopause: Benign breast lumps. One type of hormone therapy — estrogen plus progestin — already is well-known to increase the risk of breast cancer. But a major study of women able to use estrogen alone didn't find that link.

Tuesday, researchers reported a new wrinkle: Those estrogen-only users doubled their chances of getting non-cancerous breast lumps. That's a concern not only because of the extra biopsies and worry those lumps cause, but because a particular type — called benign proliferative breast disease — is suspected of being a first step toward developing cancer 10 years or so later.

About one in five women undergo a breast biopsy within a decade of starting annual mammograms, and most are of those abnormalities turn out to be benign. Yet under a microscope, there are different types, from simple fluid-filled cysts to what's called proliferative breast disease because it's made of growing cells.

The latest work, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, re-examines data from the landmark Women's Health Initiative that found a variety of health risks from long-term hormone therapy.