Hi,
Might be that I’m having a really ditsy day today but … I always thought that the reason we went into the menopause was that the levels of oestrogen and progesterone dropped dramatically. That being the case, what the heck do the hormone sensitive tumours feed on?
good point, but it apparently takes years of previous oestrogen exposure to cause the cells to develop genetic faults from which breast cancer starts and apparently about ten years before the tumour becomes large enough to detect. So I think most breast cancer starts to develop about the time of the menopause and is detectable later. That’s my theory anyway. The body continues to create some oestrogen post menopause via the adrenal glands and arimidex acts against these only after menopause
I’m not gonna get technical, mainly as my brain can’t take it… But, some estrogens are also produced in smaller amounts by other tissues such as the liver, adrenal glands (as mole has already stated), and the breasts.