Research
Hormonal
The mortality benefit of postmenopausal hormone therapy is attenuated with long-term use (10+ years) due to an increased risk of breast cancer mortality.
If you have been using hormone therapy for 10 or more years, the overall mortality benefit may be reduced due to an increased risk of breast cancer. This does not mean the therapy is harmful, but the net benefit is smaller than for short-term users. Discuss the balance of cardiovascular and breast cancer risks with your doctor.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
the apparent benefit decreased with long-term use (relative risk, 0.80; 0.67 to 0.96, after 10 or more years) because of an increase in mortality from breast cancer among long-term hormone users.
Why this rating
Same high-quality observational study design.
Source
Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy and Mortality
Francine Grodstein et al. · New England Journal of Medicine · 1997
DOI 10.1056/nejm199706193362501
cohort · n=39734Cited 1,190×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Current postmenopausal hormone therapy is associated with a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to never use, primarily driven by reduced coronary heart disease mortality.Good
- Postmenopausal hormone therapy provides the greatest mortality benefit for women with existing cardiovascular risk factors.Good
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