Menopause

Yup, another scary headline here about hormone therapy: A new report says that women who take hormones increase their likelihood of getting ovarian cancer by 45%. But, as always, it's important to pay attention to the details of the research. The women in question aren't the same Women's Health Initiative subjects you've read about in other HRT research. Instead, researchers looked at 126,920 European women.

You've probably read, on Health Goes Strong and elsewhere, about a recent finding that women who use hormone replacement therapy drugs to mitigate the symptoms of menopause are not only more likely to get breast cancer (which we've been told for years) but that their breast cancer is more likely to be invasive and that they're more likely to die of it (that's the new part).

After menopause, many women still struggle with hot flashes or night sweats. Hormone therapy stops those symptoms, but the decision about whether to use the medication has become much more complicated after the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a massive federal study that found hormone therapy can increase a woman's risk of breast cancer and blood clots.

The majority of midlife women are working, which means we get to experience the wonderful sensation of having a hot flash in the office. It's upsetting on many levels. Let's be frank: we live in a youth-obsessed society and having a hot flash instantly marks you as older. You also feel out of control. Once the hot flash starts, you pretty much have to wait until it's over (which isn't that long – only about a minute or two).