Browsing by Subject "Hormone replacement therapy"

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  • Jalava-Broman, J.; Makinen, J.; Sillanmaki, L.; Vahtera, J.; Rautava, P. (2016)
    Objective: To investigate which patient characteristics are associated with the initiation of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in a cohort of Finnish women. Study design: Responses to postal questionnaires distributed to a nationwide, randomly selected cohort of women in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2010 were analyzed. The cohort members were aged 40-44 years at the beginning of the study. Information on hormone replacement therapy was received from the national prescription register. Women who started taking HRT between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2011 were included and previous users were excluded from the analysis. Main outcome measures: Initiation of HRT was the main outcome measure. The following explanatory factors for predicting the use of HRT were examined: sociodemographic factors, personality, health behavior, physiological and mental symptoms, chronic diseases and use of psychopharmaceuticals. The associations between starting HRT and the explanatory factors were analyzed with single-predictor and multi-predictor logistic regression models. Results: Factors predicting that a woman would start taking HRT were: living with a partner, weak sense of coherence, BMI less than 30 kg/m(2), heavy or moderate alcohol use, symptoms of hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, climacteric symptoms and use of psychopharmaceuticals. Conclusions: Women with a good sense of coherence can cope with climacteric symptoms without resorting to HRT. Clinicians need to bear in mind the burden of menopausal symptoms on a woman's personal and working life when HRT is being considered. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
  • Fagerholm, Rainer; Faltinova, Maria; Aaltonen, Kirsi; Aittomaki, Kristiina; Heikkila, Paivi; Halttunen-Nieminen, Mervi; Nevanlinna, Heli; Blomqvist, Carl (2018)
    Long term use of postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) has been reported to increase breast cancer risk. On the other hand, observational studies suggest that breast cancers diagnosed during HT may have a more favorable prognosis. While family history is a risk factor for breast cancer, and genetic factors also influence prognosis, the role of family history in combination with HT use has been little studied. We investigated the relationship between HT, family history, and prognosis in 584 (267 exposed) familial and 952 (460 exposed) non-familial breast cancer cases, using three survival end points: death from breast cancer (BCS), distant disease free survival (DDFS), and local recurrence free survival (LRFS). Among non-familial cases, HT was associated with better BCS (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.41-0.94; p = 0.025), and DDFS (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.40-0.85; p = 0.005), with a consistent but not statistically significant effect in LRFS. This effect was not seen in familial cases (HR > 1.0), and family history was found to interact with HT in BCS (p((interaction)) = 0.0067) (BC-death) and DDFS (p((interaction)) = 0.0070). There was phenotypic heterogeneity between HT-associated tumors in familial and non-familial cases, particularly on estrogen receptor (ER) status, although the interaction between HT and family history appears to be at least partially independent of these markers (p = 0.0370 after adjustment for standard prognostic factors). If confirmed by further studies, our results suggest that family history should be taken into consideration in clinical counseling before beginning a HT regimen.