Prevalence and treatment of menopausal symptoms among breast cancer survivors

Women diagnosed with breast cancer often experience early menopause secondary to treatment effects, yet physicians may be reluctant to prescribe hormone replacement therapy (HRT) because of the potential increased risk of recurrence. To assess the burden of menopausal symptoms, HRT, use, and alternative treatments in recent breast cancer survivors, a population-based, case-control study was conducted among breast cancer survivors and age-matched controls. Wisconsin women 18-69 years old with a new diagnosis of breast cancer 8-11 months prior to interview (n = 110) and control subjects randomly selected from, lists (n = 73) responded to a standardized telephone questionnaire that elicited information on menopausal symptoms symptoms, estrogen and alternative therapies (Prescription medications, vitamins, herbal preparations, soy products, acupuncture, chiropractic) used to alleviate symptoms. We used multivariate logistic regression to obtain odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for symptoms of menopause, use estrogen, and use of alternative therapies. Breast cancer survivors were 5.3 (95% CI 2.7-10.2) times more likely to 25 (95% CI 8.3-100) times less likely to use estrogen, and 7.4 (95% CI 2.5-21.9) times more likely to use alternatives than controls. So, vitamin E, and herbal remedies were the most common alternative therapies reported by participants; use was greater in cases compared to controls. Most soy users reported increasing soy products specifically to reduce the chances of a diagnosis recurrant breast cancer. Among cases, of cases, tamoxifen users (n = 62) reported a higher prevalence of symptoms and a higher-prevalence of alternative treatments. This is the first popolation-based and treatments that compares breast cancer cases with disease-free controls Cases are both more likely to experience menopausal symptoms and less likely to use HRT than controls. Instead, cases treat menopausal symptoms with vitamin E and products, even though the safety and efficacy of these therapies of soy, products in this population has not been previously documented. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee, 2002.