Dear All,
I was talking to somebody at a support group last week and she thought that breast cancer could be caused by taking HRT for too long and stress. She thinks that the 2 combined are lethal.
I also think that my breast cancer has been caused by HRT and stress, even though I was only on HRT for 3 years at the most.
Has anyone got any thoughts on this.
JeannieG
I know they always say there is no real evidence to suggest stress is a factor in all this, but in the 5 years prior to being diagnosed with this I suffered my house being flooded and not being able to live in it for 18 months; just before this my dad nearly died from heart failure and once my house was sorted out I had to move back to Scotland from London to be a carer as my dad was developing dementia. He died 2 years later after a long battle and I was diagnosed with BC 12 months later. Looking after my dad meant living up here without my husband for 14 months which was another terrible strain.
I do wonder about the stress factor in all this at times.
Hi JeannieG
I tend to agree with you I was on HRT for 10yrs the last 5yrs being on it my husband died the stress was unbearable. Don’ know what the statistics are. I was diagnosed August 07 with BC and secondaries in lungs and spine
best wishes
Hi cant comment on the HRT but my youngest son aged 12 has behavioural problems and I raised this with my gp when he was 8 months old and compared with how you are treated when you are dx cancer, special needs is a completely different world, anything I have ever wanted for him I have had to fight for - I struggle with how helpful medical staff are with my dx. My MIL was dx Sept 2002 and unfortunately passed away in Dec 2002. My dad died in his sleep in Mar 2003 and my FIL who had bowel cancer became really demanding phoning constantly myself and SIL sometimes upto 30 times a day. Nothing we ever did was good enough and he was never happy. FIL died May 2006. A year later my SIL suffered severe depression and in Nov 2007 I was dx breast cancer. I feel that there is deffinately a link.
Hugs
Karen
XXX
I also agree that stress is a contributory factor. My Mother died in 2000 from alzheimers with myself and my Father caring for her at home up until the last six weeks of her life. Two years later in 2002 my Father suffered a severe mental break down and was in a psychiatric hospital for six months. Upon his release decided that he wanted to go into residential care. During all this time work was also very stressful. I was diagnosed in September 2005 with inflammatory breast cancer with mets in bones being diagnosed three weeks after initial diagnosis.
Dad has now relapsed and has been back in Hospital since October with not much sign of improvement. The last three months have been very difficult and I am worried what the stress of having Dad ill again is having on my health, as selfish as that may sound. I am finding it all very tiring.
Denio xx
There is now sound evidence that HRT increases the risk of breast cancer among post menopausal women. The Million Women Study, published in 2003 found:
for every 1000 post menopausal women NOT taking HRT there are 32 breast cancer cases
for every 1000 women taking oestrogen based HRT for 10 years there are an extra 5 cases
For every 1000 women taking combined ostrogen/progesterone HRT there are 19 extra cases.
Knowing these risks some women may well still decide to take HRT for a few years. As with all risks its a case of weighing up risks against benefits (and for many women HRT brings great relief from menopausal symptoms.)
There have been many many studies of stress and no clear link has been identified between stress and breast cancer. Results have been contradictory. Stess is in any case very difficult to measure and quantify. One study found that stress after a breast cancer diagnosis may delay recurrence! Many women think stress contributed to their breast cancer…I think this is because it is so easy to want to search and search for a reason, when actually we simply don’t know the reason.
An increased risk factor is not the same as a cause.
Many of us were post menopausal, had never taken HRT, weere not particularly stressed and still got breast cancer. Age is the biggest risk factor of all.
Jane
This all makes me despair.
perhaps we should have a thread of how our lives were before Dx of this disease.
Can i go first???
What do BCC think of this perhaps a survey of the 2 yrs before BC happened and what our lives were like.
R
Hi Liverbird
I will pass your comments on to the team.
Best wishes
Lucy
Hi Ruth
I think that Breakthrough’s exciting scientifically conducted Generations Study following thousands of women over an exteneded period is going to reap enormous benefits. In the meantime little surveys amongst ourselves can be quite interesting but they prove nothing and can simply engender anxiety.
As I think about my life I marginally wish I hadn’'t drunk so much but I’m glad I never had children…the latter is far more likely to have been a far higher risk factor for me I reckon.
Please don’t despair…we are not to blame.
best wishes
Jane
Hi all
I tend to agree with Jane on this one. But come back Ruth and others and if you think it would be a help and set up a thread by all means.
Best wishes to you all
Ann
I’m sorry Jane, I don’t care what the studies say, I am convinced there is a link to stress. There are too many of us who developed BC in the wake of a stressful period. I think that there are other factors at play, but that the stress lowers the immune function sufficiently to let the BC develop, when it wouldn’t have otherwise.
For myself, my mum was dx with brain mets in Nov 06, having had no primary symptoms. She presented with symptoms like Altzheimers which came on suddenly while on holiday with her sister. By the time her sister got her home she had lost her short term memory and was very confused. My brother & I had to take over the running of her home, life, finances etc with no information to go on (she had always been a very private person), from a distance, whilst organising family Christmases, working, and watching her die. It was immensely stressful.
My BC (grade 3) was dx in Feb 07, three weeks after she died. I am convinced that there is a connection here. I have no risk factors, in fact largely the opposite, and was 44 at dx. Grade 3 cancers can grow very quickly.
I asked my GP if I could attribute the breast cancer to taking HRT for 8 years, he said “Probably”
Hi Roadrunner
I know many people report stress after a diagnosis breast cancer but what about all the people who have lots of stress and don’t get breast cancer. One person’s negative stressor is another’s positive stressor. And I’m not kidding about the research which showed that recurrence can be delayed by stressful events.
I hope moderators will allow this link to a study which found stress reduces the risk of breast, together with comemnts on other studies which show it doubles it:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4225978.stm
Jane
A direct quote from the above article:
‘The Danish team says it may be that regular doses of stress are good, while a short burst of acute stress, around a life event such as bereavement, is bad.’
From reading posts here and talking to others, those of us who think stress plays a part have generally had something very specific happen, such as bereavement, rather than complaining of generalised stress.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for that link. It made interesting reading. I read somewhere that by the time a grade 2 cancer is noticeably felt(as is my case) its probably been developing for the last five years. When I look back that was the time I had unexpected heart wrenching bereavements, pressure at work,caring for eldery mother/mentally ill brother ect. It would be easy to say thats what caused breast cancer but if I’m honest I think its more to do with lifestyle changes that happen when we are we are stressed. I know I probably had more red wine than was good for me and I was certainly too busy ‘caring’ to bother with my own diet so maybe my immune system wasn’t what it should have been. Who knows? I’ve always lived life on the edge as it were, full of stresses and strains and never ailed anything before this.
I guess the answer like everything else will be a multitude of factors all coming together including age.
best wishes Trish
My consultant reckons it was the HRT that caused my tumour,and that it could well have started as slow growing hormonal but ended up as a very fast growing grade 3!! BC’s are all different - some only needing perhaps a dozen triggers and he doesn’t reckon that stress has anything to do with it at all!
I totaly agree with RoadRunner, i also think that sudden acute stress can play a part in getting BC it certainly does impair the immune system . My dad had a sudden stroke and died 2 weeks later in march 2006, .6 weeks later my aunt (his sister) died suddenly (hadnt been ill) 4 weeks later my lovely cavalier king charles spaniel died of vacine damage (had a heart attack) she was only 2 yrs old, 2 mths later my brother in law fell and broke his hip in 3 places ,3 mths later his wife my sister fell and broke her thigh, then to top it off i was DX with BC in july, cant believe that all these totaly unexpected shocks and the stress and truma that has gone with it hasnt plays a part in my DX. It cant all be coincidence or bad luck can it? I feel like ive had all the stress i can take these last 2 yrs.I had none of the so called risk factors for getting BC i dont even drink .
Hope this year is a lot better for all of us
Lots of Love
Lindiloo x
I was attacked out of the blue towards the end of my chemo by a lunatic who broke my ribs.My brother in law took a massive paracetamol overdose because he couldnt cope with being a closet gay,my infant grandson died,my partner lost his driving licence leaving me to have to drive him to and from work,my eldest son was left an invalid in a horrific car accident,my youngest started having heart problems,my son’s dog and our true friend ‘Bruce’ died suddenly outside my bedroom door one morning,credit card was stolen and nearly £20,000 taken which the bank refused to reimburse until the ombusman got it back 12 mths later,wrote off my car by puttig in the wrong fuel,next car got broken into and wrecked, partner was drinking so much that I had to nurse him through the DT’s…I could go on and on…and this was all within 12 mths of finishing chemo.I didn’t have time to worry about my poor prognosis which was a blessing in a way! I’m now 4+ years down the line and doing well.I really hope stress has nothing to do with reoccurance!!!.