Million Women Study Wrong, Group Says - in Endocrinology, Menopause from MedPage Today

"A study long used to establish causal links between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer is severely flawed, a group of epidemiologists have charged. The observational Million Women Study (MWS), conducted in the U.K., doesn't adequately satisfy several criteria for causality -- including information bias, detection bias, and biological plausibility -- and thus can't be used to conclude that HRT causes breast cancer, according to Samuel Shapiro, PhD, of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and colleagues.
"HRT may or may not increase the risk of breast cancer, but the MWS did not establish that it does," they wrote in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare.
Several experts not involved in the study, however, have emphasized that they're well aware of the limitations of observational studies such as the MWS, and that the totality of evidence thus far has shown a strong association between HRT and breast cancer....."

"The analysis of the Million Women Study is the latest in a series of four papers by the Shapiro group exploring the credibility of three studies -- the MWS, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), and the collaborative reanalysis (CR) -- that causally linking HRT, particularly estrogen plus progestogen therapy, with breast cancer.
The earlier papers similarly found that neither the CR nor the WHI could satisfy criteria for establishing causality...."

March 2011 Hormone therapy still has a place for treating menopause symptoms - Harvard Health Publications

Note: WHI (Women's Health Initiative)

"....But the WHI left many questions unanswered.....cont'd

full free access: Sex Hormones and Colorectal Cancer: What Have We Learned So Far? — J. Natl. Cancer Inst.

European Menopause and Andropause Society's position statements on post-reproductive health of women

in research: The Cognitive Effects of Conjugated Equine Estrogens Depend on Whether Menopause Etiology Is Transitional or Surgical -- Endocrinology

Note: abstract only/$$$ full access

"Type of menopause, surgical vs. transitional, impacts cognitive outcome in women. However, whether type of menopause impacts cognitive effects of HT has not been methodically tested in women or an animal model...........That we now show surgical vs. transitional modes of menopause result in disparate cognitive effects of HT has implications for future research and treatments optimizing HT for menopausal women."

ENDO (Endocrine) 2010 News Conference - Menopause/Hormones/Aging Women

Monday, June 21

Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: Evidence of Impact (9:30 a.m. PDT): Frontier research on the impact of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Menopause: Hormones and the Aging Woman (1:30 p.m. PDT): Release of the Society’s scientific statement on postmenopausal hormone therapy and breaking research on risks associated with menopause and treatment of menopausal symptoms.